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Someone says that a sign up form with the label What is your email? is correct, and I'd argue that, since "email" is only a "method of exchanging messages", it makes that text incorrect, and that What is your email address? should be used instead.

Can the first text be considered a mistake, as I believe, or it's an accepted expression?

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    My email is none of your business, though you may, as you suggest, have a legitimate reason for asking for my email address. Commented Jun 29, 2020 at 16:41

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While "email address" is technically the correct term, it has become extremely common to use "email" as a shorthand for it. I can't find any online dictionaries that acknowledge this sense, but I see it used all the time, Especially in form prompts, which usually need to be terse.

There's little ambiguity, because in a phrase like "your email" it's not likely that they mean "system of exchanging messages" -- this is a concept that doesn't belong to any individual.

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  • I see, I was looking at things from a different perspective. And that was, if you have a well known website or app, you should try to be as technically correct as possible, but maybe I'm too pedantic. Commented Jun 29, 2020 at 19:46
  • Similarly, in the US it's very common to be asked for your "social", or even your "sosh" instead of the more formal "social security number". This sort of abbreviation happens all the time. Commented Jun 29, 2020 at 21:51
  • @JimMack And computer networking people will refer to an "IP" rather than "IP address". Commented Jun 29, 2020 at 21:52

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