Box vs. Carton — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 11, 2023
A box is a broad term for a container, often rigid, used for storage or shipping. A carton typically refers to a lightweight container, often made of paperboard or cardboard.
Difference Between Box and Carton
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A box is a general term that describes a wide range of containers. Often, boxes are made of sturdy materials such as wood, metal, or heavy cardboard. Their primary purpose is to contain, protect, or store items. While boxes come in various shapes and sizes, they generally have a symmetrical form. In contrast, a carton is more specific in its reference. Made predominantly from paperboard or lightweight cardboard, cartons are often used to package food, beverages, and other consumer goods.
The durability and rigidity of a box make it suitable for a range of purposes. Whether it's a wooden box used for long-term storage or a corrugated box for shipping goods, its structure is meant to protect and secure. On the other hand, a carton, with its lighter material, is designed more for temporary or single-use packaging. The milk or juice carton is a classic example.
From a usage standpoint, boxes often have a more prolonged life cycle. They can be reused multiple times, especially if made of robust materials. People might use a box to store belongings, gifts, or to transport items safely. Cartons, however, are more disposable in nature. After you've consumed the product inside, the carton is typically recycled or discarded.
Lastly, while a box is versatile in its application and can be found in various industries and settings, a carton is closely associated with packaging. Often, when you buy electronic goods, the device is housed in a carton within an outer box, showcasing the complementary nature of both.
Comparison Chart
Material
Can be wood, metal, heavy cardboard.
Predominantly paperboard or lightweight cardboard.
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Purpose
General storage, shipping, containing.
Packaging, especially for consumer goods.
Durability
Often durable and reusable.
Typically more disposable.
Common Uses
Storage, gifts, transportation.
Food and beverage packaging.
Structure
Generally more rigid.
Lighter and often tailored to the product inside.
Compare with Definitions
Box
A compartment or receptacle for holding items.
The jewelry box contained her most cherished pieces.
Carton
A lightweight box for packaging consumer goods.
She opened the carton to reveal a new pair of shoes.
Box
A box (plural: boxes) is a type of container or rectangular prism used for the storage or transportation of its contents. The size of a box may vary, from the very smallest (such as a matchbox) to the size of a large appliance, and can be used for a variety of purposes ranging from the functional to the decorative.
Carton
A container made of thin paperboard or cardboard.
The carton of milk was almost empty.
Box
A container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid
A hat box
A cigarette box
Carton
A package made from folded paperboard.
The eggs were safely nestled inside the carton.
Box
An area on a page that is to be filled in or that contains separate printed matter
Tick the box on the coupon
Carton
A temporary or single-use packaging solution.
After finishing the cereal, he recycled the carton.
Box
A separate section or enclosed area reserved for a group of people in a theatre or sports ground, or for witnesses or the jury in a law court
The royal box
Carton
A carton is a box or container usually made of liquid packaging board, paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging.
Box
A protective casing for a piece of a mechanism
In the second variation, a switch loop, only one cable enters the box
Carton
A small, light box or container in which drinks or foodstuffs are packaged
A carton of milk
Box
A facility at a newspaper office for receiving replies to an advertisement
Write to me care of Box 112
Carton
Any of various containers made from cardboard or coated paper
Cans packed in cartons.
A milk carton.
Box
A woman's vagina.
Carton
The contents of a carton
Dyed the whole carton of eggs.
Box
A slap with the hand on the side of a person's head
She gave him a box on the ear
Carton
To place (something) in a carton.
Box
A slow-growing European evergreen shrub or small tree with small glossy dark green leaves. It is widely used in hedging and for topiary, and yields hard, heavy timber.
Carton
An inexpensive, disposable box-like container fashioned from either paper, paper with wax-covering (wax paper), or other lightweight material.
A carton of milk or eggs
Box
Any of a number of trees that have wood or foliage similar to the box tree.
Carton
A pack of cigarettes, usually ten, wrapped in cellophane or packed in a light cardboard box.
Box
Put in or provide with a box
The books are sold as a boxed set
Muriel boxed up all Christopher's clothes
Carton
(Australia) A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans.
Box
Mix up different flocks.
Carton
(archaic) A kind of thin pasteboard.
Box
Fight an opponent using one's fists; compete in the sport of boxing
He had to box Benn for the title
He boxed for England
Carton
(archaic) A small disc within the bullseye of a target.
Box
Recite the compass points in correct order.
Carton
(archaic) A shot that strikes this disc.
Box
Make a complete change of direction
By now the breeze had boxed the compass
Carton
To put in a carton.
Box
A container typically constructed with four sides perpendicular to the base and often having a lid or cover.
Carton
Pasteboard for paper boxes; also, a pasteboard box.
Box
The amount or quantity that such a container can hold.
Carton
The quantity contained in a carton
Box
A square or rectangle
Draw a box around your answer.
Carton
A box made of cardboard; opens by flaps on top
Box
A separated compartment in a public place of entertainment, such as a theater or stadium, for the accommodation of a small group.
Carton
A container often used for liquid products.
He poured orange juice from the carton.
Box
An area of a public place, such as a courtroom or stadium, marked off and restricted for use by persons performing a specific function
A jury box.
Box
A small structure serving as a shelter
A sentry box.
Box
Chiefly British A small country house used as a sporting lodge
A shooting box.
Box
A box stall.
Box
The raised seat for the driver of a coach or carriage.
Box
An area on a diamond marked by lines designating where the batter may stand.
Box
Any of various designated areas for other team members, such as the pitcher, catcher, and coaches.
Box
A penalty box.
Box
The penalty area on a soccer field.
Box
(Printing) Featured printed matter enclosed by hairlines, a border, or white space and placed within or between text columns.
Box
A hollow made in the side of a tree for the collection of sap.
Box
A post office box.
Box
An inbox.
Box
An outbox.
Box
An insulating, enclosing, or protective casing or part in a machine.
Box
A signaling device enclosed in a casing
An alarm box.
Box
A cable box.
Box
(Informal) A television.
Box
A very large portable radio.
Box
Chiefly British A gift or gratuity, especially one given at Christmas.
Box
An awkward or perplexing situation; a predicament.
Box
Vulgar Slang The vulva and the vagina.
Box
A slap or blow with the hand or fist
A box on the ear.
Box
Any of several evergreen shrubs or trees of the genus Buxus, especially the Eurasian species B. sempervirens, widely cultivated as a hedge plant and having opposite, leathery, dark green leaves and small whitish flowers.
Box
The hard, light yellow wood of any of these plants, formerly widely used to make musical instruments, inlays, engraving blocks, and measuring instruments. Also called boxwood.
Box
Any of various other shrubs or trees with similar foliage or timber, especially several types of eucalyptus.
Box
To pack in a box.
Box
To confine in or as if in a box.
Box
To border or enclose with or as if with a box
Key sections of the report are boxed off.
Box
To provide a housing or case for (a machine part, for example).
Box
To limit the activity or influence of by or as if by creating a restrictive structure or outlining a territory
The legislature was boxed in by its earlier decisions.
Box
(Sports) To block (a competitor or opponent) from advancing, especially to hinder an opponent from getting a rebound in basketball by placing oneself between the opponent and the basket
Was boxed out by the tallest player on the team.
Was boxed in on the homestretch.
Box
(Nautical) To boxhaul.
Box
To cut a hole in (a tree) for the collection of sap.
Box
To blend (paint) by pouring alternately between two containers.
Box
To change the shape of (a structure, such as a wall) by applying lath and plaster or boarding.
Box
To hit with the hand or fist.
Box
(Sports) To take part in a boxing match with.
Box
To fight with the fists or in a boxing match.
Box
Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.
Box
A cuboid space; a cuboid container, often with a hinged lid.
Box
A cuboid container and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
A box of books
Box
A compartment (as a drawer) of an item of furniture used for storage, such as a cupboard, a shelf, etc.
Box
A compartment or receptacle for receiving items.
Post box
Post office box
Box
A compartment to sit inside in an auditorium, courtroom, theatre, or other building.
Box
The driver's seat on a horse-drawn coach.
Box
A small rectangular shelter.
Box
(automotive) gearbox
Box
(rail) signal box
Box
(figuratively) A predicament or trap.
I’m really in a box now.
Box
(slang) A prison cell.
Box
(euphemistic) A coffin.
Box
(slang) Preceded by the: television.
Box
The vagina.
Box
A computer, or the case in which it is housed.
A UNIX box
Box
(slang) A gym dedicated to the CrossFit exercise program.
Box
(cricket) A hard protector for the genitals worn inside the underpants by a batsman or close fielder.
Box
(cricket) gully
Box
(engineering) A cylindrical casing around the axle of a wheel, a bearing, a gland, etc.
Box
(fencing) A device used in electric fencing to detect whether a weapon has struck an opponent, which connects to a fencer's weapon by a spool and body wire. It uses lights and sound to notify a hit, with different coloured lights for on target and off target hits.
Box
(dated) A small country house.
Box
A stringed instrument with a soundbox, especially a guitar.
Box
Senses relating to a two-dimensional object or space
Box
A rectangle: an oblong or a square.
Place a tick in the box.
This text would stand out better if we put it in a coloured box.
Box
(baseball) The rectangle in which the batter stands.
Box
(genetics) One of two specific regions in a promoter.
Box
(juggling) A pattern usually performed with three balls where the movements of the balls make a boxlike shape.
Box
(soccer) The penalty area.
Box
(aviation) A diamond-shaped flying formation consisting of four aircraft.
Box
Any of various evergreen shrubs or trees of genus Buxus, especially common box, European box, or boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) which is often used for making hedges and topiary.
Box
The wood from a box tree: boxwood.
Box
A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.
Box
(Australia) An evergreen tree of the genus Lophostemon (for example, box scrub, Brisbane box, brush box, pink box, or Queensland box, Lophostemon confertus).
Box
(Australia) Various species of Eucalyptus trees are popularly called various kinds of boxes, on the basis of the nature of their wood, bark, or appearance for example, the drooping (Eucalyptus bicolor), shiny-leaved (Eucalyptus tereticornis), black, or ironbark box trees.
Box
A blow with the fist.
Box
(dated) A Mediterranean food fish of the genus Boops, which is a variety of sea bream; a bogue or oxeye.
Box
(transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
Box
(transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
Box
(transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical.
Box
To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap.
Box
To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
Box
To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box.
Box
To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box.
Box
To place a value of a primitive type into a corresponding object.
Box
(transitive) To strike with the fists; to punch.
Box someone’s ears
Leave this place before I box you!
Box
To fight against (a person) in a boxing match.
Box
To participate in boxing; to be a boxer.
Box
A tree or shrub, flourishing in different parts of the world. The common box (Buxus sempervirens) has two varieties, one of which, the dwarf box (Buxus suffruticosa), is much used for borders in gardens. The wood of the tree varieties, being very hard and smooth, is extensively used in the arts, as by turners, engravers, mathematical instrument makers, etc.
Box
A receptacle or case of any firm material and of various shapes.
Box
The quantity that a box contain.
Box
A space with a few seats partitioned off in a theater, or other place of public amusement.
Laughed at by the pit, box, galleries, nay, stage.
The boxes and the pit are sovereign judges.
Box
A chest or any receptacle for the deposit of money; as, a poor box; a contribution box.
Yet since his neighbors give, the churl unlocks,Damning the poor, his tripple-bolted box.
Box
A small country house.
Tight boxes neatly sashed.
Box
A boxlike shed for shelter; as, a sentry box.
Box
An axle box, journal box, journal bearing, or bushing.
Box
The driver's seat on a carriage or coach.
Box
A present in a box; a present; esp. a Christmas box or gift.
Box
The square in which the pitcher stands.
Box
A Mediterranean food fish; the bogue.
Box
A blow on the head or ear with the hand.
A good-humored box on the ear.
Box
To inclose in a box.
Box
To furnish with boxes, as a wheel.
Box
To inclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to bring to a required form.
Box
To fight with the fist; to combat with, or as with, the hand or fist; to spar.
Box
To strike with the hand or fist, especially to strike on the ear, or on the side of the head.
Box
To boxhaul.
Box
A (usually rectangular) container; may have a lid;
He rummaged through a box of spare parts
Box
Private area in a theater or grandstand where a small group can watch the performance;
The royal box was empty
Box
The quantity contained in a box;
He gave her a box of chocolates
Box
A predicament from which a skillful or graceful escape is impossible;
His lying got him into a tight corner
Box
A rectangular drawing;
The flowchart contained many boxes
Box
Evergreen shrubs or small trees
Box
Any one of several designated areas on a ball field where the batter or catcher or coaches are positioned;
The umpire warned the batter to stay in the batter's box
Box
The driver's seat on a coach;
An armed guard sat in the box with the driver
Box
Separate partitioned area in a public place for a few people;
The sentry stayed in his box to avoid the cold
Box
A blow with the hand (usually on the ear);
I gave him a good box on the ear
Box
Put into a box;
Box the gift, please
Box
Hit with the fist;
I'll box your ears!
Box
Engage in a boxing match
Box
A rigid container with flat sides, typically square or rectangular.
She packed her belongings in a box.
Box
A container made of wood, cardboard, or metal for storage or transport.
The shipment arrived in a large wooden box.
Box
An enclosure within which something is protected or isolated.
The old relic was displayed in a glass box.
Box
A package or parcel used for mailing or gifts.
He received a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day.
Common Curiosities
What products typically come in cartons?
Items like milk, juice, eggs, and certain consumer goods are often packaged in cartons.
Are cartons eco-friendly?
Many cartons are recyclable, but it's essential to check local recycling guidelines.
Can a carton be considered a type of box?
Yes, a carton is a specific type of box, often made of lightweight material.
Are all boxes square or rectangular?
No, while many boxes are square or rectangular, they can come in various shapes.
Can boxes be decorative?
Absolutely. Many boxes, like jewelry or gift boxes, can be ornate and decorative.
How are boxes typically sealed?
Boxes can be sealed with tape, clasps, or even nails, depending on the material and purpose.
Is a carton suitable for long-term storage?
Typically, cartons are more temporary, while boxes, especially those made of sturdier material, are better for long-term storage.
Are there boxes made specifically for shipping?
Yes, corrugated boxes are commonly used for shipping due to their strength and durability.
What's the difference between a carton and a cardboard box?
While both can be made of cardboard, a carton is typically lighter and designed for packaging, while a cardboard box might be sturdier for storage or shipping.
Can a box be cylindrical?
Yes, while less common, cylindrical boxes, often called "tubes," do exist.
Are cartons always made of paper products?
Mostly, but there are plastic cartons too, especially for packaging certain beverages or foods.
Can cartons be resealed after opening?
Some cartons, especially those for beverages, come with resealable caps.
What's a common use for a metal box?
Metal boxes, like tins, can be used for storing items like tea, coffee, or even cookies.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
