pellet
Americannoun
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pellets
plural
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a small, rounded or spherical body, as of food or medicine.
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a small wad or ball of wax, paper, etc., for throwing, shooting, or the like.
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one of a charge of small shot, as for a shotgun.
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a bullet.
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a ball, usually of stone, formerly used as a missile.
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Also called cast. Ornithology. a small, roundish mass of matter regurgitated by certain predatory birds, consisting of the indigestible remains, as the fur, feathers, and bones, of the prey.
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(in Romanesque architecture) a hemispherical or disklike carved ornament.
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Heraldry. ogress.
verb (used with object)
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pellets,
present (3rd person singular)
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pelleted,
past participle, past
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pelleting
present participle
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to form into pellets; pelletize.
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to hit with pellets.
noun
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a small round ball, esp of compressed matter
a wax pellet
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an imitation bullet used in toy guns
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a piece of small shot
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a stone ball formerly used as a catapult or cannon missile
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Also called: cast. casting. ornithol a mass of undigested food, including bones, fur, feathers, etc, that is regurgitated by certain birds, esp birds of prey
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a small pill
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a raised area on coins and carved or moulded ornaments
verb
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to strike with pellets
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to make or form into pellets
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pelletsimple
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pelletssimple
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have pelletedperfect
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has pelletedperfect
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am pelletingprogressive
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are pelletingprogressive
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is pelletingprogressive
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have been pelletingperfect progressive
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has been pelletingperfect progressive
Past
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pelletedsimple
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had pelletedperfect
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was pelletingprogressive
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were pelletingprogressive
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had been pelletingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pellet
1325–75; Middle English pelet < Middle French pelote < Vulgar Latin *pilotta, diminutive of Latin pila ball. See pill 1, -et
Explanation
A pellet is a small, rounded piece of something, especially a compressed nugget of some material. Many pets eat food that comes in pellets, including some fish, rabbits, and guinea pigs. You might feed your pet rat pellets each day, or heat your house by burning pellets made of compressed sawdust in a special kind of stove. When it hails or sleets, tiny pellets of ice fall from the sky, and your cousin's BB gun works by shooting tiny metal pellets from its barrel. Pellet is from the Old French pelote, "small ball," which has the Latin pelote, or "ball," as its root.
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:
When the first claims of pellet gun use, external emerged last week, Delhi police, external called it "completely false and misleading".
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Testosterone therapy can be delivered through the application of a daily gel, weekly home injections, twice-a-day pills or an implanted pellet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The Central Reserve Police Force didn't respond to our questions about the use of pellet guns and the injuries protesters appeared to sustain.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The law also prohibits throwing a “stone, pellet, bullet, arrow or any other missile, in, over, across, along or upon any street or sidewalk or in any public park.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
If there is another stink pellet in there then Merlin won’t help you.
From "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling
"That's for the forensics to say once they've examined these pellets," they said.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
"But these pellets are not safe. They can result in life-changing or, occasionally, life-threatening injuries. They also pepper the body with toxic lead, which can sometimes be difficult to remove safely," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
With these cookers, set the internal temperature and the computer takes over, feeding small compressed hardwood pellets into the fire as needed to hold the target heat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
As they process that seawater, excess calcium and carbonate ions are removed from the body and released as solid calcium carbonate pellets called ichthyocarbonates.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2026
"I . . . uh . . . I'm doing an experiment. You know—how feeding meat to an animal compares with just giving it pellets and stuff."
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
The scientists calculated the balance of nutrients in edible portions of whole wild fish, used within pelleted salmon feed in Norway, compared to the farmed salmon fillets.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
When the grizzly family found the pelleted livestock grain they gorged for about an hour.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2020
Shrimp are fed a pelleted diet and are raised until they’re the proper size.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 10, 2020
BAC DNA was pelleted by centrifugation at 13,000 r.p.m. and 4 °C for 20 min.
From Nature ● May 8, 2018
He pelleted and tested tracer, igniter, and incendiary compositions; he took his turn at burning out rejects.
From Triplanetary by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
When monsoon rains start pelleting down once again, they cover themselves with colorful plastic sheets, some laughing, singing and dancing as the water seeps through, leaving them soaking wet.
From US News ● Aug. 12, 2014
She stayed in Cuba four weeks, kept pelleting Castro with the pleas of her contacts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Patera Covers.—In cases where the style of ornament permits of it, patera covers are used instead of pelleting.
From Woodwork Joints How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used. by William Fairham
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.
