pen pal

1. 1.

   a person you come to know by frequent friendly correspondence

   Synonymspen-friend

   Broadercorrespondent

Questions about pen pal

What does pen pal mean?

pen pal means "a person you come to know by frequent friendly correspondence".

What is another word for pen pal?

Close synonyms include pen-friend. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pen pal a common word?

pen pal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.