Title: validate_email
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# validate_email( string $email, bool $check_domain = true ): string|false

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

This function has been deprecated since 3.0.0. Use [is_email()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_email/)
instead.

Deprecated functionality to validate an email address.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [is_email()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_email/)

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$email`stringrequired

Email address to verify.

`$check_domain`booloptional

Deprecated.

Default:`true`

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string|false Valid email address on success, false on failure.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    function validate_email( $email, $check_domain = true) {
    	_deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.0.0', 'is_email()' );
    	return is_email( $email, $check_domain );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php#L170)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php#L170-L173)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [is_email()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_email/)`wp-includes/formatting.php` |

Verifies that an email is valid.

  | 
| [_deprecated_function()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_deprecated_function/)`wp-includes/functions.php` |

Marks a function as deprecated and inform when it has been used.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/validate_email/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [3.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.0/) | Deprecated. Use [is_email()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_email/)  | 
| [MU (3.0.0)](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/mu.3.0.0/) | Introduced. |

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