An electronic mailing list or email list is a special use of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to its members or customers, but typically refers to four things:

• a list of email addresses,
• the people ("subscribers") receiving mail at those addresses,
• the publications (email messages) sent to those addresses, and
• a reflector, which is a single email address that, when designated as the recipient of a message, will send a copy of that message to all of the subscribers.