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
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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
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a quantity of some commodity offered for sale; lot
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a distinct portion of land
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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
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(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:
The company has pushed into handling more of its own parcel delivery and operates storage, distribution and fulfillment for third parties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
The measure would levy an annual parcel tax in Pasadena of 19 cents per square foot of improved property, with exemptions for low-income homeowners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
The mansion, which was built in 1997 and has three stories, is situated on a 2.5-acre parcel and sprawls 18,922 square feet.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
Aymann: I think it’s part and parcel of the Muslim American experience.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026
He chatted with Lula Gates’s mother and handed her a parcel.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Because the partnerships acquired the central retail land long before the 2017 tax law passed, they couldn’t easily roll new capital gains into those specific parcels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
"When we started the project in 2015, we gave out 500 individual gifts. Last year, it was around 2,300 parcels, that's about 10,000 individual gifts," Harrison said.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Since the EU imposed the three-euro duty on small parcels in July, imports have fallen by around 64 percent -- although officials warn it is too early to draw firm conclusions.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
Last year, the industry delivered roughly 2.3 billion parcels during that period, ShipMatrix said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
When they arrived at the party, Leopard told her cousins that they should put the parcels into the pot unopened.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
Down: We’re writing Season 5 right now, and without giving too much away, we’re approaching that season very differently in terms of how information’s parceled out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
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
On and on they flew, over countryside parceled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscape like strips of matte and glossy ribbon.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
People are living longer, spending more on themselves and parceling out their riches in smaller doses to children and grandchildren.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 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
"I'm thinking of parceling off portions of my brain," I once told her.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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
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
His downfall is parcelled out carefully along the way, and each new attempt to escape his fate brings about new and awful consequences.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 20, 2019
"It has all been a retro-rush. Weekly episodes parcelled out like old times. Cliffhangers you talked about next day by the new watercooler, Twitter."
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2018
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
Then he conceals the assumption by parcelling out the accidental modification in a supposed series of transitional stages.
From At the Deathbed of Darwinism A Series of Papers by Edwin V. O'Harra
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