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:
A local menswear store replaced its part-time carriers with American Messenger when Casey offered a monthly rate capped at 17.5 cents a parcel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Aymann: I think it’s part and parcel of the Muslim American experience.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026
Padilla said postal inspectors intercepted a suspicious parcel addressed to his office, according to reports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
"It's the same, you know, the precious parcel on the trolley is the same as the precious parcel in the car. You have to get all of those steps right."
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
She ties the House of Rare Reptilians emblem around my neck, and shoves a parcel into my hands.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
But cities and towns can shrink that figure: In Houston, for instance, real-estate developers can build on parcels as small as 1,400 square feet.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Residents will retain their post office box numbers and continue picking up parcels downtown.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
James Frakes of Los Angeles downloaded Muse to field incoming Facebook Marketplace inquiries on vacant parcels of land he sells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
According to the Trussell Trust more than 2.2m food parcels were given out in England in 2025, a 56% rise on 2019.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Holt consolidated the parcels and sold them to the federal government for the flying field and laboratory.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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
He was a prolific writer and he parceled out songs to people that he cared about or was working with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 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
His mail shirt and helm were parceled out.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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
The insurance department, in turn, has encouraged companies to ask for all the rate increases they need at once, rather than parceling out requests over time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
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
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
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
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
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
Few have given the Home Office credit for the amount of interesting and cheap amusement it then afforded by parcelling out the country among the military authorities.
From Essays in Rebellion by Henry W. Nevinson
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