an object used for or capable of holding, esp for transport or storage, such as a carton, box, etc a large cargo-carrying standard-sized container that can be loaded from one mode of transport to another (as modifier): a container port, a container ship
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
con•tain•er /kənˈteɪnɚ/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- anything that contains or can contain something, as a carton.
- Communications, Transporta large, reusable box for keeping together smaller crates or cartons in a single shipment:The ships unloaded the containers and the dock workers removed the crates from inside them.
con•tain•er
(kən tā′nər),USA pronunciation n.
- anything that contains or can contain something, as a carton, box, crate, or can.
- Communications, Transporta large, vanlike, reuseable box for consolidating smaller crates or cartons into a single shipment, designed for easy and fast loading and unloading of freight.
- 1400–50 for an earlier sense; 1495–1505 for def. 1; late Middle English conteiner; see contain, -er1
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'container ship' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):