CC Meaning: Carbon Copy in Email, and Bcc

How CC works on an email

To, Cc and Bcc, line by line

An email has three address lines, and the internet mail standard says they differ only in how each one is used.

Line	Who goes on it
To	The primary recipients, who should act
Cc	Others who should know, and who get every reply all that follows
Bcc	Recipients whose addresses the rest of the list never sees

Where carbon copy comes from

Cc is short for carbon copy. Typing a letter over a sheet of carbon paper printed a copy onto a second sheet underneath. Some people say it stands for courtesy copy.

Carbon copy	Since
A copy made with carbon paper	1876
Cc as a verb, as in “I’ll cc you”	1983

Bcc means blind carbon copy. Nobody else on the email can tell that a Bcc recipient got it. In Outlook, only the sender sees the Bcc names afterward.

A blind recipient who hits reply all reveals they had a copy all along.

Use Bcc for a long list of outside people who don’t know each other, such as clients, so nobody sees anyone else’s address.

What a CC says at the office

Copying the manager

Adding someone’s manager to the Cc line turns a request into a request with a witness. “Looping in Priya for visibility” means Priya will now see how fast you answer.

The most annoying habit in the inbox

CC’ing people who don’t need the email annoys 44% of British office workers. No other email habit annoys more of them.

British office workers annoyed by	Share
Long-winded emails, in second place	43%
Extra CCs, among Gen Z, who mind them most	49%
Extra CCs, among millennials and boomers, who mind them least	42% each

Bigger lists

More email now goes to big groups, and less goes to one person at a time. Everyone you cc can hit reply all, and on a big list someone will.

In a year	Change
Mass emails, with 20 or more recipients	Up 7%
One-to-one threads	Down 5%

The please-remove-me chain

Cc a mailing list and every reply all reaches the whole list. A division-wide announcement goes out with the division’s mailing list cc’d, and someone replies all asking to be taken off.

Four more reply all to say they want off too, and six more reply all asking everyone to stop. The announcement was about saving time in meetings.

When you’re on the Cc line

A copy is for reading, so act only when someone asks you by name. If a thread stopped concerning you three weeks ago, message the sender privately and ask to come off it.

Two tags explained in our plain-English jargon dictionary tell you what the sender wants. FYA means for your action, so do something. An NRN in the subject line means no reply needed.

Someone who joins a thread late should get an FW instead of a CC, so the earlier messages come with it.

CC away from email

Engines, captions and clouds

Outside email, CC has several other meanings.

Where	What CC means
On an engine	Cubic centimeters, as in a 750cc motorcycle
In dictionaries	Closed-captioned, community college, country club or chief clerk
Written Cc	Cirrocumulus, a type of cloud

An email that cc’s the boss

Subject: RE: Laptop refresh, still waiting
Hi Tom, ~~cc’ing Priya so she’s aware~~ sending your boss a copy. My laptop was due in the August refresh and the battery now lasts 40 minutes. I can pick up the new one from the IT desk any day this week.

CC in a sentence

I'll cc your manager, Paul, so she sees the numbers.
Why is the whole department on CC for a question about one invoice?
If I don't hear back by Friday, I'll have to CC your director.
Someone put all 300 customers in CC instead of BCC, Ulla, so now they're replying to each other.

Questions about CC

What is the full meaning of CC?

Carbon copy. On an email, the Cc line is for people who should see the message but aren't its main readers. Some people expand it as courtesy copy instead.

What is the difference between CC and BCC?

Everyone on the email can see who was CC'd. Only the sender can see who was BCC'd, which is why BCC suits a long list of people who don't know each other.

Should I reply to an email I was CC'd on?

Usually not, unless it asks you something by name or you know a fact the people on the To line don't. If you do reply, check the recipients before you hit reply all.

What does it mean to CC someone?

To add them to the Cc line so they get a copy of the email, which some people call cc'ing them in. Before email, the cc was a carbon copy of a typed letter, and the names after 'cc' showed who got one.

What does CC mean in slang?

Mostly the email sense used as a verb: "cc me" asks for a copy, and cc'd is the past tense. Gamers also use cc for crowd control, as in "just cc him".

What does CC mean on a motorcycle or a car?

Cubic centimeters, the unit for the size of an engine. A 750cc motorcycle has a bigger engine than a 250cc one, and a bigger engine is usually a more powerful one.

Sources

The 10 sources behind this page

CC meaning in email: carbon copy