Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Topic: COMPUTERS

Date: 1200-1300
Language: Old French
Origin: Medieval Latin missaticum, from Latin mittere 'to send'

message

 noun
     
mes‧sage S1 W2 [countable]
1 a spoken or written piece of information that you send to another person or leave for themCOLLOCATIONS COLLOCATIONS
get/receive a message leave a message send a message take a message (=give a telephone message from someone to someone else) pass on/relay a message (=give someone a message from someone else) urgent/important message telephone/fax message mail/email message (=a message sent by computer) text message (=on a mobile phone) message of thanks/congratulations/support/sympathy etc
Did you get my message?
message from
There's a message from Karen on the answerphone.
message for
I have an urgent message for you.
He left a message saying he would probably be a little late.
I use the internet mainly for sending email messages.
I'm sorry, she's out right now, can I take a message?
He wanted me to pass on a message to the police.
The family would like to express their thanks to all those who sent messages of sympathy after Jack's tragic accident.
2 [usually singular] the main or most important idea that someone is trying to tell people about in a film, book, speech etc:
The message of the film is that good always triumphs over evil.
The result of this legal battle sends an important message to people in similar situations.
It's perfectly possible to get your message across (=communicate what you want to say) without being so angry.
They use illustrations to convey their message.
3

get the message

informal to understand what someone means or what they want you to do:
OK, I get the message - I'm going!
4TD a piece of written information which appears on a computer screen to tell the user about something, especially a problem
error/warning message
I keep getting an error message when I try to log on.
5

on/off message

stating or not stating the official opinion of the political party you belong to
6

keep to the message

to always emphasize your political party's most important ideas when you are trying to gain people's support:
Don't confuse the voters. Keep to the message.
Definition of message from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English within
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