Email, e-mail or electronic mail is the transmission of messages (emails or email messages) over electronic networks like the internet.

I guess this dry definition is not what you've been looking for. And indeed, it doesn't say or mean much, not to me either. This "transmission of messages" could be anything. But don't let that intimidate or confuse you. Email is as simple and straight forward as letter writing.

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• The email message - Instead of using a pen to write a letter on paper, you're using your keyboard to type an email message in an email program on your computer.
• Sending the email - When the email is finished and has been addressed to the recipient's email address, you don't put a stamp on it and post it but press the Send button in the email program. This makes the email message go on its journey.
• Email transport - Like postal services transport letters and parcel, email servers transmit email messages from sender to recipient. Usually, emails are not delivered to the recipient directly, though, but waiting at the "nearest" mail server to be picked up by them.
• Fetching new mail - If you've got new mail in your mailbox, you go and fetch it. Similarly, your email program can check for new email messages at your mail server and download them for you to read.

Email can be explained in terms of postal mail, and both the purpose and basic operating are the same: exchange messages. Yet email can do some things that postal mail can't, and it does other things much better.

The benefits and wonders of email include:

• Convenience - If a desktop computer, laptop or mobile phone is around, you can type your email message wherever you want, save it for later use and send it at any time without having to worry about envelopes, stamps and tariffs.
• Speed - Emails typically arrive within seconds or minutes — anywhere in the world, something that can be said only about a negligible number of the letters I've sent via postal mail.
• Attachments - You can attach any file on your computer to an email message easily, regardless of its type and, mostly, size. It's as easy to send a long master's thesis around the world as it is to email a spread sheet, a report, pictures, or a saved game of your favorite game.
• Accessibility - Emails can be stored conveniently in your email program. Good programs make it easy to organize, archive and search your emails, so any information contained in an email is always readily accessible.
• Cost - Safe for the setup & the fee you pay for accessing the internet, sending and receiving emails is typically free.