Glossary

Email validation, in plain English

The vocabulary of deliverability — hard bounces, catch-all domains, spam traps, SMTP, SPF/DKIM/DMARC — defined clearly, with no jargon left unexplained.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of sent emails that could not be delivered and were returned by the receiving server.

Read definition

Catch-All Domain

A mail server configured to accept email for every possible address at a domain, even ones that do not exist.

Read definition

Complaint Rate

The percentage of recipients who mark your email as spam, a key signal mailbox providers use to judge senders.

Read definition

Disposable Email Address

A short-lived email address from a temporary-mail service, used to avoid giving out a real address.

Read definition

DKIM

An email-authentication standard that adds a cryptographic signature proving a message was not altered in transit.

Read definition

DMARC

A policy standard that builds on SPF and DKIM to tell receivers what to do with mail that fails authentication.

Read definition

Email Blocklist

A published list of IP addresses or domains known for sending spam, used by mail servers to block or filter senders.

Read definition

Email Deliverability

The ability of your email to actually reach recipients' inboxes rather than being blocked or filtered to spam.

Read definition

Email Verification

The process of checking whether an email address is real, correctly formatted, and able to receive mail before you send to it.

Read definition

Greylisting

An anti-spam technique where a server temporarily rejects mail from unknown senders, expecting legitimate ones to retry.

Read definition

Hard Bounce

A permanent delivery failure that happens when an email is sent to an address that does not exist or cannot receive mail.

Read definition

List Hygiene

The ongoing practice of keeping an email list free of invalid, risky, and unengaged addresses.

Read definition

MX Record

A DNS record that tells other servers which mail server is responsible for receiving email for a domain.

Read definition

Role-Based Email Address

An address tied to a job function or team rather than a person, such as info@, support@, or sales@.

Read definition

Sender Reputation

A trust score that mailbox providers assign to your sending IP and domain, which determines whether your mail reaches the inbox.

Read definition

SMTP

The standard protocol mail servers use to send and receive email across the internet.

Read definition

SMTP Verification

Checking whether a specific mailbox exists by starting an SMTP conversation with the receiving server without sending a real email.

Read definition

Soft Bounce

A temporary delivery failure caused by a transient issue, such as a full mailbox or a server that is briefly unavailable.

Read definition

Spam Trap

An email address used by mailbox providers and blocklists to identify senders with poor list hygiene.

Read definition

SPF

An email-authentication standard that lets a domain list which servers are allowed to send mail on its behalf.

Read definition

Syntax Validation

The most basic email check: confirming an address is correctly formatted before any network lookups.

Read definition

Ready to Try BounceShift?

Get 100 free validations to test our service. No credit card required.

Start Free Trial