packages

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of package.

   Customs officials inspected several packages before clearing them for release.

   She wrapped the holiday packages in bright red paper and ribbon.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of package take this plural: parcels and envelopes, bundles of components, software prepared for a package manager, package holidays. The old uncountable meaning, the act of packing, has no plural. The same spelling also serves the verb's present form, so a phrase like "the company packages" stays ambiguous until the rest of the sentence shows whether a verb follows.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of package.

   The company packages each device with a charger and a printed manual.

   She carefully packages the fragile pottery before every long shipment.

   Note

   One form covers every verb meaning: bundling goods, traveling on a package holiday, and the producer's work of taking a book or television series from research to finished product before selling it to a publisher or broadcaster. In that last use the object is the whole project (she packages a series for a broadcaster). Unlike the noun plural, it always follows a singular subject.

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