postcode

UK/ˈpəʊs(t)kəʊd/US/ˈpoʊs(t)ˌkoʊd/

nounB1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: postcodes

A postcode is the letters and numbers that pinpoint an address. Give your postcode.

A full British one covers about fifteen houses, which is why it is used for everything. Postcode is used to mean an area, so a postcode lottery means services differing by where you live.

Definitions of postcode

1nounpostcodeThe letters and numbers that pinpoint an address.B1
“The postcode was enough to find the house without a street name.”

postcode is a code.

Also accepted in games: zip code

Where it comes from

Post plus code; the British system was introduced nationally between 1959 and 1974.

From post + code.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Bank & Post Office

Practise this word

postcode in the wild

Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes (originally, postal codes).
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
Each postcode area is subdivided into districts, which in turn are subdivided into sectors.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
The postcode area is the largest geographical unit used and forms the initial characters of the alphanumeric UK postcode.
List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom
The E (Eastern) postcode area, also known as the London E postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering much of east London, England.
E postcode area
Since closure of the East London mail centre, its mail is sorted at Romford Mail Centre together with IG and RM postcode areas.
E postcode area

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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