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:
Again, they demolished the dwelling that stood on that parcel in order to begin construction on another custom manse, which they broke ground on in 2024.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
She was given her first by her parents when she was eight, in Christmas 1932, and remembers waking up and seeing a huge parcel all wrapped up.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
“While the project followed standard approval processes for an industrially zoned parcel, we recognize the community wanted more engagement sooner, and we take that seriously,” Wehner said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Ukraine's ambassador Makeiev also pointed to the 2024 incident involving a DHL parcel in Leipzig.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
He is going over in his mind how the parcel came and how pleased she was.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
Robots sorting parcels and serving fried chicken enthralled visitors at a robotics expo in Beijing on Wednesday, where hundreds of companies set out their pitches for a future labour market transformed by artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
The 1.8-acre estate, which spans two adjacent parcels in the luxurious waterfront community, went into contract just one week after the agent began quietly marketing it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
Because many parcels remain undeveloped in the farther reaches of Lehigh Acres, streets often contain an unorthodox mix of sleek new homes, 1970s-style ranch houses and empty, overgrown lots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The concept would probably face opposition from Altadenans who have rallied by the hundreds to oppose building permits for multiple homes on individual parcels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Men and women, young and old, were squashed between the stalls, most of them laden with bags and parcels, everyone trying to squeeze past one another.
From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke
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
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
I could keep the condition in check by feeding him small meals six to eight times a day, a tablespoon of the prescription dry food parceled out one pea-sized piece at a time.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 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
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
But the league is also parceling off more rights and three of the next seven Stanley Cup Finals to a secondary bidder.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 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
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
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
The Ottomans’ former Arab possessions were parcelled out as “mandates” under the new League of Nations: France got Syria and Lebanon while Palestine, Iraq and Transjordan went to Britain.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 16, 2017
Individual land ownership is often ineffectual for forests and rangelands, which lose their value when parcelled up.
From Economist ● Jul. 14, 2016
Some like Public Accounts and Backbench Business, are reserved to the Opposition, but the rest are parcelled out in proportion to the parties' strength.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2015
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
Often a rope is served without parcelling and for ordinary purposes parcelling is not required.
From Knots, Splices and Rope Work A Practical Treatise by A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt) Verrill
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.
