Pack vs. Bag — What's the Difference?

A collection of items tied up or wrapped; a bundle.

A bag (also known regionally as a sack) is a common tool in the form of a non-rigid container. The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being no more than lengths of animal skin, cotton, or woven plant fibers, folded up at the edges and secured in that shape with strings of the same material.Despite their simplicity, bags have been fundamental for the development of human civilization, as they allow people to easily collect loose materials such as berries or food grains, and to transport more items than could readily be carried in the hands.

A container made to be carried on the body of a person or animal.

A container of flexible material, such as paper, plastic, or leather, that is used for carrying or storing items.

The amount, as of food, that is processed and packaged at one time or in one season.

A handbag; a purse.

A small package containing a standard number of identical or similar items

A piece of hand luggage, such as a suitcase or satchel.

A complete set of related items

A pouchlike or sagging organ or part of the body, such as a cow's udder.

(Informal) A large amount; a heap

An object that resembles a pouch.

A group of animals, such as dogs or wolves, that run and hunt together.

(Nautical) The sagging or bulging part of a sail.

A gang of people

The amount that a bag can hold.

An organized troop having common interests

An amount of game taken or legally permitted to be taken.

A mass of large pieces of floating ice driven together.

(Baseball) A base.

Material, such as towels, sheets, or blankets that are used to swathe a patient or body part.

(Slang) An area of interest or skill

A material, such as gauze, that is therapeutically inserted into a body cavity or wound.

(Slang) A woman considered ugly or unkempt.

An ice pack used to reduce pain and inflammation.

To put into a bag

A cold pack.

To cause to bulge like a pouch.

A hot pack.

To capture or kill as game

A cosmetic paste that is applied to the skin, allowed to dry, and then rinsed off.

To gain; acquire

Variant of pac.

To capture or arrest

To fold, roll, or combine into a bundle; wrap up.

To accomplish or achieve

To put into a receptacle for transporting or storing

To fail to attend purposely; skip

To fill up with items

To stop doing or considering; abandon

To process and put into containers in order to preserve, transport, or sell

To terminate the employment of.

To bring together (persons or things) closely; crowd together

To pack items in a bag.

To fill up tight; cram.

To hang loosely

To wrap (a patient) in a pack.

To swell out; bulge.

To insert a pack into (a body cavity or wound).

A soft container made out of cloth, paper, thin plastic, etc. and open at the top, used to hold food, commodities, and other goods.

To wrap tightly for protection or to prevent leakage

A container made of leather, plastic, or other material, usually with a handle or handles, in which you carry personal items, or clothes or other things that you need for travelling. Includes shopping bags, schoolbags, suitcases, and handbags.

To press together; compact firmly

(colloquial) One's preference.

(Informal) To carry, deliver, or have available for action

(derogatory) An ugly woman.

To send unceremoniously

A fellow gay man.

To constitute (a voting panel) by appointment, selection, or arrangement in such a way that it is favorable to one's purposes or point of view; rig

(baseball) The cloth-covered pillow used for first, second, and third base.

To place one's belongings in boxes or luggage for transporting or storing.

(baseball) First, second, or third base.

To be susceptible of compact storage

(preceded by "the") A breathalyzer, so named because it formerly had a plastic bag over the end to measure a set amount of breath.

To form lumps or masses; become compacted.

(mathematics) A collection of objects, disregarding order, but (unlike a set) in which elements may be repeated.

A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.

A sac in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance.

A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack

A pouch tied behind a man's head to hold the back-hair of a wig; a bag wig.

A multitude.

The quantity of game bagged in a hunt.

A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.

A scrotum.

A full set of playing cards

(UK) A unit of measure of cement equal to 94 pounds.

The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.

A dark circle under the eye, caused by lack of sleep, drug addiction etc.

A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.

(slang) A small envelope that contains drugs, especially narcotics.

A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.

£1000, a grand.

A flock of knots.

(informal) A large number or amount.

A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.

(transitive) To put into a bag.

A group of Cub Scouts.

(transitive) To take with oneself, to assume into one's score

A shook of cask staves.

(informal) To catch or kill, especially when fishing or hunting.

A bundle of sheet iron plates for rolling simultaneously.

To gain possession of something, or to make first claim on something.

A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.

(slang) To steal.

(medicine) An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.

To take a woman away with one as a romantic or sexual interest.

(slang) A loose, lewd, or worthless person. en

(slang) To arrest.

A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker.

(transitive) To furnish or load with a bag.

(rugby) The forwards in a rugby team (eight in Rugby Union, six in Rugby League) who with the opposing pack constitute the scrum.

To provide with artificial ventilation via a bag valve mask (BVM) resuscitator.

(roller derby) The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity.

To fit with a bag to collect urine.

(physical) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.

To expose exterior shape or physical behaviour resembling that of a bag

(transitive) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack

To (cause to) swell or hang down like a full bag.

(transitive) To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.

To hang like an empty bag.

(transitive) To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.

To drop away from the correct course.

(transitive) To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.

To become pregnant.

(intransitive) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.

To forget, ignore, or get rid of.

(intransitive) To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.

To show particular puffy emotion

To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.

To swell with arrogance.

To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.

To laugh uncontrollably.

(social) To cheat.

To criticise sarcastically.

To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage

A sack or pouch, used for holding anything; as, a bag of meal or of money.

(transitive) To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.

A sac, or dependent gland, in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance; as, the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents; the bag of a cow.

(transitive) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.

A sort of silken purse formerly tied about men's hair behind, by way of ornament.

(intransitive) To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.

The quantity of game bagged.

(transitive) To load with a pack

A certain quantity of a commodity, such as it is customary to carry to market in a sack; as, a bag of pepper or hops; a bag of coffee.

To load; to encumber.

To put into a bag; as, to bag hops.

To move, send or carry.

To seize, capture, or entrap; as, to bag an army; to bag game.

(transitive) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.

To furnish or load with a bag or with a well filled bag.

To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).

To swell or hang down like a full bag; as, the skin bags from containing morbid matter.

(intransitive) To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.

To swell with arrogance.

To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.

To become pregnant.

To block a shot, especially in basketball.

A flexible container with a single opening;

To play together cohesively, specially with reference to their technique in the scrum.

The quantity of game taken in a particular period (usually by one person);

To wear an object, such as a prosthetic penis, inside one’s trousers to appear more male or masculine.

Place that runner must touch before scoring;

A pact.

A bag used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women);

A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back; a load for an animal; a bale, as of goods.

The quantity that a bag will hold;

A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack; hence, a multitude; a burden.

A portable rectangular traveling bag for carrying clothes;

A group or quantity of connected or similar things; as, a pack of lies

An ugly or ill-tempered woman;

A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.

Mammary gland of bovids (cows and sheep and goats)

An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.

An activity that you like or at which you are superior;

A loose, lewd, or worthless person. See Baggage.

Capture or kill, as in hunting;

In hydropathic practice, a wrapping of blankets or sheets called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the condition of the blankets or sheets used, put about a patient to give him treatment; also, the fact or condition of being so treated.

Hang loosely, like an empty bag

The forwards who compose one half of the scrummage; also, the scrummage.

Bulge out; form a bulge outward, or be so full as to appear to bulge

To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack; to press into close order or narrow compass; as, to pack goods in a box; to pack fish.

Take unlawfully

To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into; as, to pack a trunk; the play, or the audience, packs the theater.

Put into a bag;

To shuffle, sort and arrange (the cards) in a pack so as to secure the game unfairly; to stack{3} (the deck).

To bring together or make up unfairly and fraudulently, in order to secure a certain result; to stack{3}; as, to pack a jury or a caucus.

To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.

To load with a pack; hence, to load; to encumber; as, to pack a horse.

To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; esp., to send away peremptorily or suddenly; to send packing; - sometimes with off; as, to pack a boy off to school.

To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (i. e., on the backs of men or beasts).

To render impervious, as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without giving passage to air, water, or steam; as, to pack a joint; to pack the piston of a steam engine.

To cover, envelop, or protect tightly with something;

To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.

To admit of stowage, or of making up for transportation or storage; to become compressed or to settle together, so as to form a compact mass; as, the goods pack conveniently; wet snow packs well.

To gather in flocks or schools; as, the grouse or the perch begin to pack.

To depart in haste; - generally with off or away.

To unite in bad measures; to confederate for ill purposes; to join in collusion.

A large indefinite number;

A complete collection of similar things

A small parcel (as of cigarettes or film)

An association of criminals;

An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose

A group of hunting animals

A cream that cleanses and tones the skin

A sheet or blanket (either dry or wet) to wrap around the body for its therapeutic effect

A bundle (especially one carried on the back)

Arrange in a container;

Fill to capacity;

Compress into a wad;

Carry, as on one's back;

Set up a committee or legislative body with one's own supporters so as to influence the outcome;

Have with oneself; have on one's person;

Press tightly together or cram;

Hike with a backpack;

Press down tightly;

Seal with packing;

Have the property of being packable or compactable or of compacting easily;

Load with a pack

Treat the body or any part of it by wrapping it, as with blankets or sheets, and applying compresses to it, or stuffing it to provide cover, containment, or therapy, or to absorb blood;