Packaged

How to spell packaged

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce packaged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does packaged mean?

1. verbWrapped or bundled goods together for sale, storage, or shipping.
2. adjectiveSold or supplied ready-wrapped, or offered as a combined bundle.

Packaged in a sentence

• verb

  The factory packaged the biscuits in resealable bags.

• adjective

  The diet relies too heavily on packaged convenience foods.

• verb

  She packaged the gift carefully before posting it abroad.

• adjective

  They booked a packaged holiday that covered flights and meals.

Where does packaged come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word 'pack' arrived in English in the 1200s from the Low Countries, where Middle Dutch and Middle Low German both had 'pak', meaning a bundle of goods tied together for transport, a term that spread through the medieval wool and cloth trade. To this English added the French-derived suffix '-age', which forms nouns describing a collective thing or process, producing 'package' by the 1500s to mean a wrapped or bundled parcel. The verb 'to package', meaning to wrap or bundle goods for sale or shipping, followed naturally, and 'packaged' is its past form and adjective. Over time the word broadened from physical parcels to figurative bundles, as in a packaged holiday or a deal packaged together. The spelling keeps the silent 'a' of '-age' before the '-ed', so the sequence runs '-aged', which is the only spot where a writer might hesitate.

How the word is built

• pack (bundle)
• -age (noun-forming suffix denoting a collection)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)