Carton
nounA box or container made of cardboard or stiff paperboard, used to hold goods such as milk, eggs, or juice.
How to spell carton
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce carton
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does carton mean?
- nounA box or container made of cardboard or stiff paperboard, used to hold goods such as milk, eggs, or juice.
Carton in a sentence
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She poured the last of the milk from the carton into her coffee.
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Each carton of eggs held a dozen, neatly cushioned in moulded pockets.
Where does carton come from?
Language of origin: Italian
This word traces back to the Latin charta, which meant a leaf or sheet of papyrus paper, itself borrowed from the Greek khartes for the same writing material. In Italian charta became carta 'paper', and the augmentative form cartone described a heavy, thickened sheet, what we would call pasteboard or cardboard. French took this in as carton, and English borrowed the French spelling in the early 1800s, first for the stiff card used to mount artwork and protect goods. From there it narrowed to mean a box or container made of such board, like a milk or egg carton. The very same charta root sits inside 'chart', 'card', and 'cartoon', and that last relative is the spelling trap: a carton holds things, while a cartoon makes you laugh, with the extra 'o' marking the longer vowel.
How the word is built
- cart- (from Italian cartone: thick paper, pasteboard, ultimately Latin charta 'paper')
- -on (augmentative ending suggesting a large or heavy sheet)
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