packet

English Online Dictionary. What means packet‎? What does packet mean?

English

Alternative forms

• pacquet (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pacquet; either from Middle French pacquet, or formed independently from pak and -et.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpækɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpækət/
• Hyphenation: pack‧et
• Rhymes: -ækɪt

Noun

packet (plural packets)

1. A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel

   (archaic) a travel bag containing clothing, nightwear and other accessories.

2. (nautical) Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed days of sailing; a mail boat. Packet boat, ship, vessel (Wikipedia).
3. (botany) A specimen envelope containing small, dried plants or containing parts of plants when attached to a larger sheet.
4. (networking) A small fragment of data as transmitted on some types of network, notably Ethernet networks (Wikipedia).
5. (networking) A protocol data unit of the Internet Protocol.
6. (networking) A message sent over a transport layer protocol.
7. (South Africa) A plastic bag.
   • 2012 August 6, Wendy Knowler, Plastic packets: who bags the profits?
8. (slang) Synonym of package (“male genitalia”).
9. (informal) A large amount of money.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

packet (third-person singular simple present packets, present participle packeting, simple past and past participle packeted)

1. (transitive) To make up into a packet or bundle.
2. (transitive) To send in a packet or dispatch vessel.
3. (intransitive) To ply with a packet or dispatch boat.
4. (transitive, Internet) To subject to a denial-of-service attack in which a large number of data packets are sent.
   • 2007, Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace

     Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender. These attacks—known as packeting—tend to be of limited duration […]

Translations

See also

• datagram
• packetlike
• packet radio
• packet switching, packet-switching

Further reading

• “packet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• packet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Ptacek, peck at

German

Alternative forms

• packt

Pronunciation

Verb

packet

1. imperative plural of packen

Portuguese

Noun

packet m (plural packets)

1. (networking) packet (small fragment of data)

Swedish

Noun

packet

1. definite singular of pack