I need to use a word in a warehouse. We need to know:
- capacity of package?
- type of package?
- price, quantity in package?
However, I need to use another word to explain the material which is around the package itself (and here I have a problem, because I think the best word is, well, package).
Yet I can't use the same word for this (image of many of packages in a warehouse), and this (image of a single package).
I have to determine a unique word for each.
Best Answer
Yes, Mirinda, the actual choice of words for 'packages' is not totally logical.
Firstly, the actual material the container is made from (as in your second picture) is called packaging, but there is often a hint of the material being in the made-up form (again as in your second picture) rather than a continuous roll of corrugated cardboard, say. Though packaging could be applied to the latter also:
Packaging: 1.
a. the box or wrapping in which a product is offered for sale (Collins)
Packaging: 2. Material used for making packages. (AHDEL)
Secondly, your first picture shows stacks of what I'd usually call boxes or cartons. Wooden ones would be crates. Though technically they are packages (and certainly are 'packed' when their contents are added), this word is usually reserved (when used in a literal sense) for the smaller, often plastic- or paper-wrapped parcels one gets through the post. Parcels (not usually packages) is also used for what one gets from parents at Christmas, say.