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:
Resident John Whiting, who turned 80 on Saturday, described his parcel as "unbelievable".
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Pop quiz: Artificial-intelligence giant Anthropic on Sunday announced it is creating a new fund to parcel out cash to existing nonprofits and maybe some individuals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 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
So I set the parcel with sausage on the table, smooth down my hair, and try to remember how to be a polite guest on a social call.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
Vlasenko was more exposed when he ran to fetch supply parcels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
The new levy -- coming just weeks before the Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas season shopping rushes -- will be on top of the EU's three-euro fee on small parcels.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026
Unlike freeways, they may have driveways to specific parcels and at-grade intersections.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
However, Bass later rolled back the directive in some areas, including single-family parcels, historic districts and very high fire severity zones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
I went with Father, feeling a certain pride in the Company’s craft as I carried the clean, pressed, and starched clothes wrapped in the crisp, blue paper and tied with twine into neat parcels.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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
Situated on the sunny second floor, it was one of four flats parceled out in the 1950s from a 14th-century Tuscan estate, Villa di Marignolle, that once belonged to the Medicis.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 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
As he grew in each, he assumed the role of the lovelord, parceling it out to all he came across while saving just enough for himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2022
Inside the Weggs’ yellow colonial, on five acres north of Indianapolis, Rodney had been parceling out limited information.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2021
Narrative agency is what interests the author, her manner of parceling out information evoking at times the fragmentary and diaristic sensibilities of Jenny Offill’s “Dept. of Speculation.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2020
"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
Camelot, which has run the lottery since it was launched in 1994, has nothing to do with the way the money is parcelled out.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2021
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
At the house, Alvarado filled Cox’s container from a five-gallon blue plastic water jug—ten litres for a hundred dollars, to be parcelled out in bottles that he would sell for three hundred apiece.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2016
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
The system was that of parcelling out the land among the families of the villages or country-side, and did not permit its absorption by large, individual landholders.
From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Martin Hume
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