packet

Syllables: pack·et/ˈpæk.ɪt/US/ˈpæk.ɪt/

packet noun: a small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel.

Noun

packet (plural packets)

A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel
- Don't throw the crisp packet on the floor!
- a packet of letters
Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed days of sailing; a mail boat. Packet boat, ship, vessel (Wikipedia).
- With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- The wooden jetty on the East Pier had become worm-eaten and was demolished, but the Admiralty lent an old hulk to serve as a rough-and-ready packet facility.1960 May, K. A. Murray, “Carlisle Pier, Dun Laoghaire”, in Railway Magazine, page 302
A specimen envelope containing small, dried plants or containing parts of plants when attached to a larger sheet.
- With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what...1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
A small fragment of data as transmitted on some types of network, notably Ethernet networks (Wikipedia).
A protocol data unit of the Internet Protocol.
A message sent over a transport layer protocol.
- The Minecraft server accepts connections from TCP clients and communicates with them using packets. A packet is a sequence of bytes sent over the TCP connection.2024 September 28 (last accessed), “Protocol”, in wiki.vg, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2024, Definitions
(South Africa) A plastic bag.
- 2012 August 6, Wendy Knowler, Plastic packets: who bags the profits?
(slang) Synonym of package (“male genitalia”).
- A sleeping, silver-haired man, probably about fifty, couldn’t close his legs because of the size of his packet.2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 157
Synonyms:

package
(informal) A large amount of money.
- It'll cost a packet to fix this.

Verb

packet (third-person singular simple present packets, present participle packeting, simple past and past participle packeted)

(transitive) To make up into a packet or bundle.
(transitive) To send in a packet or dispatch vessel.
- [H]er husband / VVas packetted to France, to ſtudy courtſhip, / Under forſooth a colour of employment, / Employment, yea of honour.c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act I, page 2
(intransitive) To ply with a packet or dispatch boat.
(Internet, transitive) To subject to a denial-of-service attack in which a large number of data packets are sent.
- Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender. These attacks—known as packeting—tend to be of limited duration […]2007, Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace

packet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

packet in Hindi

small pack: पुड़िया puṛiyā, पैकेट paikeṭ, पुलिंदा pulindā, लिफ़ाफ़ा lifāfā

packet in Tamil

பொட்டலம், சிப்பம், சிறுபொதியம், பொட்டணம்

packet in Marathi

packet, pouch, bundle: पुडा puḍā

packet in Urdu

ڈبہ, ڈبیا, پلندا

More languagesFewer languages

packet in Bengali: প্যাকেট pêkeṭ, মোড়ক mōṛok
packet in Telugu: పొట్లము poṭlamu
packet in Malayalam: പാക്കെട്ട് pākkeṭṭŭ
packet in Kannada: ಕಿರುಕಟ್ಟು, ಪೊಟ್ಟಣ, ಪುಡಿಕೆ, ಸಣ್ಣಕಟ್ಟು
packet in Punjabi: ਪੈਕੇਟ, ਪੈਕਟ, ਪੈਕੇਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
packet in Gujarati: પડી paḍī
packet in Odia: ପ୍ଯ଼ାକେଟ୍, ପ୍ଯ଼ାକେଟ, ପ୍ଯ଼ାକେଟ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
packet in Nepali: प्याकेट
packet in Arabic: حُزْمَة ḥuzma, رَبْطَة rabṭa, رِزْمَة rizma, صُرّة ṣurra
packet in Persian: پاکت pâkat, بسته baste
packet in Thai: ห่อ hɔ̀ɔ
packet in Vietnamese: gói
packet in Myanmar: အထုပ် a.htup

Examples of packet in a sentence

Before potato crisps were sold pre-salted each packet would contain a screw of salt.
The encapsulation layer adds an eight-byte header and a two-byte trailer to each packet.
Our new foil packets keep the flavour of the crisps locked in.

All 40 example sentences with packet

Synonyms of packet

package

Forms of packet

Noun
plural	packets
alternative form (obsolete)	pacquet
Verb
third-person singular present	packets
present participle	packeting
past participle	packeted
past	packeted

Plural of packet: packets

Origin of packet

From Middle English pacquet; either from Middle French pacquet, or formed independently from pak and -et.

Phrases with packet

Words that rhyme with packet

Questions about packet

What does packet mean?: Packet means a small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel.
What is packet in Hindi?: Packet in Hindi is पुड़िया (puṛiyā), पैकेट (paikeṭ), पुलिंदा (pulindā). See Packet meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is packet?: Packet can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce packet?: Packet is pronounced /ˈpæk.ɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of packet?: The plural of packet is packets.

Words near packet in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-packet.wav.

Cite this entry: “packet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/packet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.