Word.ws English Dictionary

universal packager

universal packager noun: a mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable by grouping into units.

Noun

universal packager

  1. A mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable by grouping into units.
    • Moreover, the opposite switch occurs as well: muds = 'kinds of mud', ice-creams = 'portions of ice cream' (Universal Packager).1986 February, Emmon Bach, “The Algebra of Events”, in Linguistics and Philosophy, volume 9, numbers 1, Tense and Aspect in Discourse, page 10
    • Similarly, the "Universal Packager" does not seem to be 'universal', but rather it appears to be largely restricted to foodstuffs, as Fillmore and Kay (1994: ch. 3, p. 29) observe.1999, Hana Filip, Aspect, Eventuality Types, and Nominal Reference, New York: Garland, →ISBN, page 62

Origin of universal packager

Compound of universal + packager; first used in print in 1986 by Emmon Bach (see quote below) modeled on universal grinder.

Questions about universal packager

What does universal packager mean?
Universal packager means a mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable by grouping into units.
What part of speech is universal packager?
Universal packager is a noun.

Words near universal packager in the dictionary

  1. universal masking
  2. universal mind
  3. universal morphism
  4. universal morphisms
  5. universal opportunity
  6. universal packager
  7. Universal Postal Union
  8. universal product code
  9. universal product codes
  10. universal properties
  11. universal property

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: universal packager (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.

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