Pack

How to spell pack

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pack

What does pack mean?

1. nounA set of items wrapped or boxed together, or a bag carried on the back.
2. verbTo fill a container with items, especially in preparation for travel or storage.
3. nounA group of animals, especially wolves or dogs, that live and hunt together.

Pack in a sentence

• noun

  She bought a fresh pack of printer paper for the office.

• verb

  Remember to pack your passport before the early flight.

• noun

  The documentary followed a pack of wolves across the tundra.

• noun

  He hoisted the heavy pack onto his shoulders before the hike.

• verb

  They will pack the fragile glasses in bubble wrap for the move.

• noun

  A pack of stray dogs roamed the empty market at night.

Where does pack come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Pack entered English in the 1200s from the trading vocabulary of the Low Countries, related to Middle Dutch and Middle Low German pak, meaning a bundle of goods tied up for carrying or sale. The word travelled the medieval wool routes, where merchants bound cloth into compact loads, and it slipped readily into English, French, and other European languages as commerce spread. From the original sense of a bound bundle it broadened to mean any set of things grouped together, then to the act of filling a container, and later to a band of animals or people moving as one. The spelling is pleasingly straightforward: a short vowel followed by the -ck ending that English uses after a single stressed short vowel, which is why nobody writes 'pak' or 'pac'. Its everyday relatives include 'package', 'packet', and 'backpack', all carrying that same idea of things bundled up.

How the word is built

• pack (single root; no prefix or suffix)