Packet

How to spell packet

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce packet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does packet mean?

1. nounA small parcel or container holding a quantity of something.
2. nounA formatted unit of data carried across a network.

Packet in a sentence

• She tore open a packet of crisps on the train.

• The router dropped a packet during the heavy download.

• The seeds came in a paper packet with planting instructions on the back.

• Each packet carries a header that records its destination address.

Where does packet come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Packet comes from 'pack', a word for a bundle of goods that English shared with Dutch and Low German trading partners in the medieval Low Countries, where 'pak' meant a bale or parcel of cloth. To this English speakers added the French-derived diminutive ending '-et', meaning 'little', so a packet was literally a 'small pack'. By the 1500s it had settled into the modern sense of a small wrapped parcel or quantity of something. The word also gave its name to the 'packet boat', a vessel that carried mail and small parcels on a fixed route, which is why historic ferry and mail ships were called packets. The spelling keeps the hard 'ck' of pack before the 'et' ending, which is the main thing to remember.

How the word is built

• pack (bundle, parcel)
• -et (diminutive suffix: small)