Bundle

How to spell bundle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bundle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bundle mean?

1. nounA collection of things fastened or grouped together as one unit.
2. verbTo push, gather, or wrap something hastily into a compact mass or to send someone quickly somewhere.

Bundle in a sentence

• noun

  The courier dropped off a thick bundle of letters.

• verb

  Staff had to bundle the documents into boxes before the move.

• noun

  The phone deal came as a bundle with broadband and television.

• verb

  They tend to bundle the children into the car when rain starts.

Where does bundle come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Bundle traces back to the same Germanic root that gives us 'bind', and it most likely entered English from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'bundel', a word for a collection of things tied together. The underlying idea is binding: a bundle is literally what you get when you bind several loose objects into one carried mass. The native Old English form 'byndele' (a binding) sat alongside the borrowed Dutch term, and the two reinforced each other in late Middle English around the 1300s. Over time the verb sense grew naturally from the noun, so that to bundle someone meant to hurry them along as if wrapping them up in a hasty parcel. The 'bind' connection is a useful spelling cue: the same family includes 'band', 'bond', and 'bind', all about fastening things together.

How the word is built

• bund- (related to bind: to tie together)
• -le (diminutive/instrumental suffix)