parcel

Syllables: par·celUK[ˈpʰɑː.səɫ]/ˈpɑɹsəl/

parcel noun: a package wrapped, as for shipment or transport.

Noun

parcel (plural parcels)

A package wrapped, as for shipment or transport.
- I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.
- At twilight in the summer[…]the mice come out. They[…]eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly[…]on the floor.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

package
An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
An individual item appearing on an invoice or receipt (only in the phrase bill of parcels).
A division of land bought and sold as a unit.
- I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.
Synonyms:

plot
(obsolete) A group of birds.
An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
- […] this youthful parcel / Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- "Come, now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is to be at the christening?" "Ah," said the boy, "we are to have a great parcel of strangers and great people."1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 195
A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
A portion of anything taken separately; a fragment of a whole; a part.
- A certain piece of land is part and parcel of another piece.
- The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]1731, John Arbuthnot, chapter 4, in An essay concerning the nature of aliments, London: J. Tonson, page 85

Verb

parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle (US) parceling or (UK) parcelling, simple past and past participle (US) parceled or (UK) parcelled)

To wrap something up into the form of a package.
To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.
- Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.
To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with off, out or into.
- Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Thoſe ghoſtly Kings would parcel out my pow’r, / And all the fatneſs of my Land devour;1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act I...
To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
- […] that mine own servant should / Parcel the sum of my disgraces by / Addition of his envy!c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Adverb

parcel (not comparable)

(obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
- Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- […] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]1826, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and...

parcel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

parcel in Hindi

package wrapped for shipment: पार्सल pārsal
division of land bought and sold as a unit: भूखंड bhūkhaṇḍ

parcel in Tamil

package wrapped for shipment: பார்சல் pārcal

parcel in Urdu

package wrapped for shipment: پارسل pārsal

More languagesFewer languages

parcel in Bengali: মোড়ক mōṛok
parcel in Telugu: పార్శిల్, పార్సెల్
parcel in Malayalam: പാഴ്സൽ pāḻsal
parcel in Kannada: ಕಟ್ಟು
parcel in Punjabi: ਪਾਰਸਲ, ਪਾਰਸੇਲ
parcel in Gujarati: પાર્સલ, પાર્સેલ
parcel in Odia: ପାର୍ସେଲ, ପାର୍ଶଲ୍, ପାର୍ସଲ୍
parcel in Nepali: पार्सल, पार्सेल
parcel in Tagalog: parsela
parcel in Arabic: رِزْمَة rizma, رُزْمَة ruzma, طَرْد ṭard
parcel in Indonesian: parsel, petak
parcel in Persian: بسته baste
parcel in Thai: ห่อของ hɔ̀ɔ-kɔ̌ɔng, ห่อพัสดุ hɔ̀ɔ-pát-sà-dù, พัสดุ pát-sà-dù
parcel in Vietnamese: gói, bưu kiện
parcel in Myanmar: ပါဆယ် pahcai, အထုပ် a.htup

Examples of parcel in a sentence

It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin...
[…] instead of sitting (as she ought to have done) by her good father and mother, she must needs run up into the gallery, and sit with a parcel of giddy creatures of her own age […]1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page...
I don't think we are sitting pretty / So far away from our fair city / But I love you more than any parcel of earth.1982 April 3, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
Then the great Hall was wholly broken down, / And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms;1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, etc., London: Edward Moxon, pages 94–95:

All 40 example sentences with parcel

Synonyms of parcel

package
plot

Forms of parcel

Noun
plural	parcels
Verb
third-person singular present	parcels
present participle US	parceling
present participle UK	parcelling
past participle US	parceled
past US	parceled
past participle UK	parcelled
past UK	parcelled

Plural of parcel: parcels

Origin of parcel

From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.

Words formed from parcel

Phrases with parcel

Words that rhyme with parcel

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about parcel

What does parcel mean?: Parcel means a package wrapped, as for shipment or transport.
What is parcel in Hindi?: Parcel in Hindi is पार्सल (pārsal), भूखंड (bhūkhaṇḍ). See Parcel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use parcel in a sentence?: It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”
What part of speech is parcel?: Parcel can be a noun, a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce parcel?: Parcel is pronounced [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ] (UK).
What is the plural of parcel?: The plural of parcel is parcels.

Words near parcel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: parcel (page history and authors); parcel (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parcel (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parcel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parcel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parcel (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parcel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parcel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-parcel.ogg.

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