pack
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A bundle made up and prepared to be carried.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pakIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpæk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.
A full set of playing cards
A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.
The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.
A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.
A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.
verb
transitive
To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack
transitive
To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.
Fill to capacity
“This singer always packs the concert halls.”
intransitive
To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
transitive
To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.
transitive
To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.
Used this way, pack is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use pack
- “This singer always packs the concert halls.”verb
- “Pack the books into the boxes.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Any material used especially to protect something.
A workman employed to pack things into containers.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Gain (weight).
A pack of 52 playing cards.
The ratio of the volume occupied by packed red blood cells to the volume of the whole blood as measured by a hematocrit.
A preparation of blood cells separated from the liquid plasma.
A large expanse of floating ice.
An animal (such as a mule or burro or horse) used to carry loads.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The business of packing.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.