GLOSSARY
Missent mail
By Justin Winter · Updated August 28, 2026
Mail that was routed to the wrong destination by USPS handling error, as distinct from mail that is undeliverable because of a bad address.
Missent mail has a valid, correctly written address, but was sorted onto the wrong route or sent to the wrong facility somewhere in USPS's processing network. Once caught, it is rerouted rather than returned to the sender.
It is worth distinguishing from undeliverable-as-addressed mail, where the fault is in the address itself rather than in how USPS handled a correctly addressed piece — the fix and the delay each produces are different.
See also
- Undeliverable as addressed — USPS’s classification for a piece that cannot be delivered to the address written on it — the umbrella term behind most returned mail.
Back to the full mail glossary.