"Dear Sir or Madam" has one job: to open a letter when you don't know the reader's name. It fails at that job. The phrase signals that the writer couldn't be bothered to find out who they were writing to, wraps that lack of effort in an outfit from the nineteenth century, and lands in an inbox alongside emails addressed to an actual person. There's no excuse for it in 2026, and this article explains exactly what to use instead.
Why "Dear Sir or Madam" fails
The phrase has three problems, and they compound each other.
First, it's gendered by default. The structure assumes a binary and makes no room for anyone outside it. As writing gender-neutral emails has become standard practice across industries, "Sir or Madam" sticks out as a relic rather than a neutral fallback.
Second, it signals laziness. A name is almost always findable. LinkedIn, a company website, a phone call to reception, the email thread you're replying to: any of these takes two minutes. When a reader sees "Sir or Madam," the subtext is clear. The writer didn't try.
Third, it's formal in the wrong direction. Most business writing has moved toward directness and warmth. "Sir or Madam" communicates stiffness, not respect. Respect shows up in specificity, not in Victorian ceremony.
The alternatives, in order of preference
The best replacement for "Dear Sir or Madam" is a name. Specifically: find one.
If you're writing a cover letter, a cold pitch, or a formal complaint, spend five minutes on research before you open a salutation. Look up the hiring manager, the department head, or the customer service lead. A specific name transforms the opening line. "Dear Ms. Okafor" is warmer, more direct, and more likely to get a response than anything that begins with "Sir or Madam."
When a name is genuinely unavailable, use a role or team instead. "Dear Hiring Manager," "Dear Customer Service Team," and "Dear Procurement Team" all give the reader something real to connect with. They're targeted without pretending to know who will read the message. This approach works especially well for job applications, formal complaints, and supplier inquiries.
A third option is to drop the salutation entirely and open with a subject line that does the work. Many professional emails skip the greeting and move straight to the first sentence. This reads as confident and modern, not rude. If your email has a clear subject line and a direct opening, the reader doesn't need a "Dear" at all.
What about "To Whom It May Concern"?
This phrase gets suggested as a "Dear Sir or Madam" replacement. It isn't one. "To Whom It May Concern" carries the same archaic weight, signals the same low-effort approach, and adds a grammatical awkwardness that stands out in any modern inbox. Avoid it for the same reasons.
The phrase does have one narrow legitimate use: formal legal or reference letters where the writer genuinely cannot identify a recipient at all, and where the letter may be passed to multiple readers over time. Outside that specific context, it's a cop-out dressed in formal clothes.
Salutations and the effort they signal
Choosing a salutation isn't just grammar. It's a signal about how much you value the reader's time and attention. A personalised opening says you did the work. A generic one says you didn't. Given that the opening line is the first thing a reader processes, letting it carry a "couldn't find your name" signal is a poor use of the only moment you're guaranteed.
This is worth keeping in mind for greetings and salutations more broadly: the formality level, the name choice, and even the punctuation after the opening line all contribute to tone before your first real sentence lands.
When you're writing to a group
If a single email or letter goes to multiple named recipients, list them. "Dear James, Priya, and Tomoko" takes five seconds and reads as thoughtful. If the group is large or only partially known, "Dear all," "Hello everyone," or "Good morning, team," all work. None of them requires you to reach for "Sir or Madam" as a crutch.
For larger distributions or situations where the reader list is uncertain, addressing multiple people in an email or letter has a full breakdown of the options and when each one applies.
The practical checklist
- Do you have a name? Use it. Always.
- No name, but you know the role? Use the role: "Dear Hiring Manager."
- No name, no role, but you know the team? Use the team: "Dear Customer Service Team."
- Writing to a legal or regulatory body where the reader is truly unknown? "To Whom It May Concern" is acceptable. Nowhere else.
- Writing to a group? Name them or use a collective: "Dear all," or "Hello team."
None of these options requires "Sir or Madam." That phrase has been redundant for years. Drop it from your templates, your saved drafts, and your muscle memory. The alternatives are faster to write and far more effective at doing what a salutation is supposed to do: make the reader feel the message was written for them.
If you're updating letter templates or onboarding materials, now is a good time to search for "Sir or Madam" across your organisation's documents and replace every instance. Grammarly's coverage of the phrase offers a useful reference if you need to make the case to colleagues who think the old formula is still acceptable. It isn't.