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:
It is illegal to discharge a pellet or BB gun outside an authorized target range in the city of Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
But he did not comment on the use of pellet guns.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 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
"We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant's Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer," Pirro said.
From Barron's ● May 3, 2026
It worked by compressing air into a container with a bellows and using the compressed air to power a dart or pellet.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Scientists predict that the plastic pellets will continue to wash up on North East beaches as the clean up continues.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Those piles can alert homeowners to an infestation, but there is a catch: old pellets can remain long after termites have disappeared.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Researchers identified five bacterial families that were consistently found in fresh Douglas fir-derived pellets but absent after certain periods of aging.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
“She survived devastating trauma, two pellets lodged in her head, and a relentless infection that gradually destroyed part of her jaw — yet she continued adapting, searching for food and fighting to remain alive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Whatever was in her throat got bigger, like one of those foam bath pellets that inflates in water.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
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
The RNA precipitate was pelleted by centrifuging at 4,000 r.p.m. for 10 min at 4 °C. The pellet was rinsed with 1 ml 70% ethanol, air dried, and dissolved in RNase-free water.
From Nature ● Oct. 10, 2017
Any visible expression of nature would surely be pelleted with his jeers.
From Men, Women, and Boats by Stephen Crane
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
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