Definition of passel
: a large number or amount
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Examples of passel in a Sentence
reporters had a whole passel of questions for the new basketball coach
the young couple had a passel of babies in the span of a few years
Recent Examples of passel from the Web
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A whole passel of relations stopped by, and of course the topic occasionally turned to actually trying to figure out the proper description of the various blood relationships.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'passel'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The loss of the sound of "r" after a vowel and before another consonant in the middle of a word is common in spoken English. This linguistic idiosyncrasy has given our language a few new words, such as cuss from curse, bust from burst, and our featured word passel from parcel. The spelling passel originated in the 15th century, but the word's use as a collective noun for an indefinite number is a 19th-century Americanism. It was common primarily in local-color writing before getting a boost in the 1940s, when it began appearing in popular weekly magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and Saturday Review.
Origin and Etymology of passel
alteration of parcel
First Known Use: 1835
PASSEL Defined for English Language Learners
passel
playDefinition of passel for English Language Learners
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: a large number or group of people or things
Learn More about passel
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See words that rhyme with passel Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for passel
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