- present participle of package.
noun
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the box or wrapping in which a product is offered for sale
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the design of such a box or wrapping, esp with reference to its ability to attract customers
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the presentation of a person, product, television programme, etc, to the public in a way designed to build up a favourable image
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the work of a packager
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of packaging
Explanation
Packaging is the material used to enclose, protect, and even promote things that are for sale. It’s all about presentation. If you’re having trouble selling lemonade out of an old pickle jar, perhaps you should change the packaging. Walk through a supermarket or a drug store and you'll see many different kinds of packaging, from hard plastic medicine bottles to cardboard cereal boxes and glass jars of spaghetti sauce. You can call the act or business of putting all these items into containers packaging too. There's also a figurative meaning of this noun, "presenting something in a flattering or beneficial way," as in: "The advisors' packaging of the candidate makes him seem much smarter."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Automation now takes place mostly in the moulding and the packaging process. But for soft toys, or even some of the electronics nowadays, it's still very labour intensive."
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
But performance has, and its market-leading chips wouldn’t have been possible to manufacture without advanced packaging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The biggest shortages are expected in advanced logic chips, chip packaging, semiconductor equipment, Ajinomoto Build-up Film substrates, high-end copper-clad laminate materials, high-bandwidth memory, and high-speed optical components, they add.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
It is used in numerous everyday products, including food wrappers, storage containers, plastic packaging, and the linings of beverage cups.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
With relief he peels back the foil covering his breakfast, extracts the silverware from its sealed plastic packaging, asks the British Airways stewardess for a glass of orange juice.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Tried this out of the 3-liter box and it tastes similar in both packagings.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2019
Banned are plastic food packagings made with CFCs, certain types of building insulation and some solvents widely used for cleaning printed circuit boards in personal computers.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.