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Glossary · Updated May 2026

Email marketing glossary — the words that actually matter.

Concise, source-grounded definitions for the terms that come up when you run email at scale. Every entry cites the underlying RFC, vendor doc, or AcelleMail source path — paraphrased definitions that send curious readers to a 404 are not on this page. Start with the term you came in for; cross-links carry you through the related cluster.

In this glossary · 10 terms

  1. SMTPSimple Mail Transfer Protocol
  2. SPFSender Policy Framework
  3. DKIMDomainKeys Identified Mail
  4. DMARCDomain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance
  5. Amazon SESAmazon Simple Email Service
  6. Double opt-inTwo-step subscriber confirmation
  7. Hard bouncePermanent delivery failure
  8. Soft bounceTransient delivery failure
  9. IP warmupSending volume ramp on a new IP
  10. Email deliverabilityThe rate at which sent messages reach the recipient inbox

Browse all terms

Each definition stands alone. Cross-links connect the cluster.

Protocol RFC 5321

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the internet standard for transferring email messages between mail servers, defined in RFC 5321. It is the wire protocol behind every email...

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Authentication RFC 7208

SPF

Sender Policy Framework

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS-based email authentication standard (RFC 7208) that lists the IP addresses authorised to send mail for a domain. Receiving servers query the...

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Authentication RFC 6376

DKIM

DomainKeys Identified Mail

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is a cryptographic email authentication standard (RFC 6376) in which the sender signs each outgoing message with a private key, and the receiver v...

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Authentication RFC 7489

DMARC

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an email authentication policy layer (RFC 7489) that tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fails, an...

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Vendor

Amazon SES

Amazon Simple Email Service

Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is the AWS pay-as-you-go email-relay service. AcelleMail ships with first-class SES drivers (SMTP and API) and treats it as the recommended sendin...

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Compliance

Double opt-in

Two-step subscriber confirmation

Double opt-in is a two-step list-subscription flow in which a new subscriber confirms their email address by clicking a link in a confirmation message before they are added to the...

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Operations

Hard bounce

Permanent delivery failure

A hard bounce is a permanent email delivery failure — the receiving mail server has rejected the message in a way that signals retrying will never succeed (e.g. mailbox does not ex...

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Operations

Soft bounce

Transient delivery failure

A soft bounce is a transient email delivery failure — the receiving server has temporarily refused the message (mailbox full, server down, greylisting) and the sender may retry. Ac...

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Operations

IP warmup

Sending volume ramp on a new IP

IP warmup is the practice of gradually ramping daily sending volume on a new sending IP to build a positive reputation with mailbox providers. AcelleMail ships a built-in WarmupStr...

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Metric

Email deliverability

The rate at which sent messages reach the recipient inbox

Email deliverability is the rate at which sent messages actually reach the recipient's primary inbox — distinct from delivery (the receiving server accepted the message) and from s...

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Why a glossary

For when the pillar guide is too long, and the spec is too dense.

The deliverability pillar is the long read — RFC syntax, the 6-week IP warmup schedule, the bounce-handler tuning playbook. The glossary is the index card: one-paragraph definition, one paragraph on how AcelleMail handles it, three or four cross-links. Land here from search, leave with a working mental model and a link to whichever deeper page is right.

Every claim on every term page traces back to a source — an RFC paragraph, an AWS doc URL, or a path under /Users/luan/apps/acelle/. If a fact stops being true, it gets fixed at the source registry (resources/glossary/index.php) and the term page reflects the change on next deploy.

Need the longer read?

Three pillar guides go deeper on the topics this glossary indexes. Each is source-grounded against the AcelleMail codebase.

Deliverability guide → Cost-savings guide → Self-hosted pillar →