parcel
Americannoun
-
parcels
plural
-
an object, article, container, or quantity of something wrapped or packed up; small package; bundle.
-
a quantity or unit of something, as of a commodity for sale; lot.
-
a group, collection, or assemblage of persons or things.
- Synonyms:
- assortment, batch
-
a distinct, continuous portion or tract of land.
-
a part, portion, or fragment.
verb (used with object)
adverb
noun
-
something wrapped up; package
-
a group of people or things having some common characteristic
-
a quantity of some commodity offered for sale; lot
-
a distinct portion of land
-
an essential part of something (esp in the phrase part and parcel )
verb
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(often foll by up) to make a parcel of; wrap up
-
(often foll by out) to divide (up) into portions
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nautical to bind strips of canvas around (a rope)
adverb
Synonym Usage
See package.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of parcel
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French parcelle, from unattested Late Latin particella, fresh formation for Latin particula; see particle, passel
Explanation
A parcel is a part of something, or a division. It can also be a package or a collection of things wrapped together. Parcel comes from the Anglo-Norman word for "part." Often when we use parcel to mean a part, we're talking about land, which is divided into definable (and purchasable) tracts. As a verb, parcel means to divide something into parts, just as after trick-or-treating you might parcel your candy stash into piles of chocolates, peppermints, or toffees. If you're selling the family farm, you might parcel it into four small plots.
Vocabulary lists containing parcel
"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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Revolution in Our Time
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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:
Citi analyst Ariel Rosa sees value in parcel shipping stocks heading into the holiday shopping season.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ellison’s property is the third-largest oceanfront parcel in Palm Beach County.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
“This is really part and parcel of completing that jigsaw puzzle,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
A vibrant pantomime-style atmosphere is part and parcel of the darts experience and Dutch and German crowds are amongs the most raucous - but it is clear Littler believes he has been unfairly targeted.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
I cradled my parcel to my chest and began walking.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
But posties speaking to us anonymously say parcels are still being prioritised, letters left behind, and time wasted in sorting and dividing mail into first and second class.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Residents will retain their post office box numbers and continue picking up parcels downtown.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
According to the Trussell Trust, 67,851 parcels were distributed in Northern Ireland, 26,459 of those given to children in 2025.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Before the rule change, that was rarely checked upfront for parcels under $800 in value because of a decades-old customs exemption for low-value mail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Uniformed women with lacquered hair, high heels, and fitted skirts looked down on us, signaled that we should fasten our safety belts, place parcels under the seat in front of us, and sit up.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
The acres parceled out for Stratos all lie on private, unzoned property, and the landowners there had already granted their blessing.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2026
Certain credits are parceled out quarterly or even monthly, and premium cards can have the feel of a coupon book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
I scan the little slots until I find mine: a refill of Greek oregano, parceled out in a plastic baggie with a heat-sealed strip.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2025
General Ryder said that 569 metric tons of aid had made it onto Gaza’s shore but that those supplies had yet to be parceled out by humanitarian organizations.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2024
No longer were the university’s resources, parceled out at a few hundred dollars at a time, sufficient for his purposes.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
In the run-up to “One Battle After Another,” DiCaprio played the traditional role of the elusive movie star, parceling out access and promotional appearances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
California became an agricultural powerhouse by taming its rivers and parceling out their flows.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2024
Front-line nurses, already parceling out a few minutes an hour to each patient under their care, say juggling unfamiliar products or adjusting to workarounds makes their jobs even more fraught.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2022
The Irvine Co. had wound down its cattle operations and was parceling out its 185 square miles of land.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2018
Or was it just more of the same parceling out of fortunes that had brought us this far, to this place where our path would finally divide into two?
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Golden rice fields stretch across the Vercelli plain between Milan and Turin, a parcelled landscape broken only by the wood and wetlands created by Cerutti, now home to rare birds and insects.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
When the crowd - penned 10-deep all along the Mall for hours - surged into the area in front of the palace, you could have parcelled up the joy and sold it around the world.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2022
Just open up a page and experience the meditative calm of reading alphabetized lists that are parcelled into neat little sections.
From Slate ● Feb. 14, 2020
Indeed, American cultural history could probably be parcelled out as a sequence of sensational murder cases.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 8, 2019
That first captain walled their promontory, built their homes and shrines, and parcelled out the black land for the plow.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Congo-Brazzaville's government has already begun parcelling out blocks of land and looking for potential investors, although there is some uncertainty about the extent and significance of the oil reserves.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2022
Given all this filtering and parcelling out, it’s not surprising that memory is imperfect.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2014
And once you begin parcelling out roles rather than wrapping them together in a single nightmare bundle, it gets rather easier to find George Entwistle's successor.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 18, 2012
Popular in Czechoslovakia is the Government's policy of seizing the broad acres of great nobles and parcelling them out among the poor.
From Time Magazine Archive
I know no literature more ineffably dreary than the parcelling out of these wild and glorious visions, the attaching of them to this and that petty human fulfilment.
From Joyous Gard by Arthur Christopher Benson
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