packrattery

packrattery noun: the behavior of a packrat; a tendency to collect miscellanea or bric-a-brac, often to excess.

Noun

packrattery (uncountable)

(derogatory, informal) The behavior of a packrat; a tendency to collect miscellanea or bric-a-brac, often to excess.
- But packrattery soon precluded any Williamsburgish consistency.1977, Joseph Chamberlain Furnas, Stormy Weather: Crosslights on the Nineteen Thirties: An Informal Social History of the United States 1929–1941
- Many stories were tape-recorded at family reunions through the years (we also are record keepers, given a little leeway for chaos and packrattery).1999, Ina Dillard Russell, Roots and Ever Green: The Selected Letters of Ina Dillard Russell

Remember the first principle of packrattery: Stuff will accumulate proportionate to the space and place made available for it.2006, Don Aslett, Weekend Makeover: Take Your Home from Messy to Magnificent in Only 48 Hours!:
It’s packrattery, but I can usually lay my hands on the volumes I need.2023 February 2, Rebecca Clarke, “Alex Prud’homme Wishes He Was in the Room Where It Happened”, in The New York Times:

From packrat + -ery.

What does packrattery mean?: Packrattery means the behavior of a packrat; a tendency to collect miscellanea or bric-a-brac, often to excess.
How do you use packrattery in a sentence?: Remember the first principle of packrattery: Stuff will accumulate proportionate to the space and place made available for it.
What part of speech is packrattery?: Packrattery is a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: packrattery (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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