MX record
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An MX record (mail exchange record) is a record in a DNS system specifying to which server mail should be routed.
For example the MX record of the domain linuxquestions.org is mail.linuxquestions.org:
$ dig linuxquestions.org -t MX ; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> linuxquestions.org -t MX ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64759 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;linuxquestions.org. IN MX ;; ANSWER SECTION: linuxquestions.org. 14400 IN MX 10 mail.linuxquestions.org. ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: mail.linuxquestions.org. 14400 IN A 64.179.4.148 ;; Query time: 139 msec ;; SERVER: 217.237.150.51#53(217.237.150.51) ;; WHEN: Tue Aug 7 20:52:17 2007 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 73
If you have an eMail for the address someone@linuxquestions.org, linuxquestions.org is the recipient's domain. This domain's MX record tells you which server from this domain is an SMTP server. In our case, it is mail.linuxquestions.org.