Meaning & use
part and parcel
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Meaning
phraseidiom
An essential element of something that belongs to it completely and cannot be separated from it.
Grammar: Always followed by of plus a noun: part and parcel of the job. The words part and parcel keep this fixed order.
Patterns
- part and parcel of something
- become part and parcel of something
Dealing with complaints is part and parcel of working in customer service.
Long meetings became part and parcel of life at the new company.
Common combinations
- part and parcel of the job
- Working weekends is part and parcel of the job for a junior doctor.
- part and parcel of life
- Waiting in line is part and parcel of life in a big city.
- part and parcel of growing up
- Making your own mistakes is part and parcel of growing up.
Synonyms and how they differ
- integral part
- Similar meaning but neutral; part and parcel stresses that something comes with the package, wanted or not.
- essential feature
- Suggests the element is important and defining, without the sense that it is unavoidably attached.
Commonly confused: part and parcel or parcel?
part and parcel vs parcel
Alone, parcel means a package; only in the fixed phrase part and parcel does it mean an inseparable element.
Practice
For a restaurant chef, working late nights is ______ of the job.
Choose one answer.
The fixed idiom is part and parcel of something, meaning an inseparable element. Reversing the words or inserting other words breaks the set phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “part and parcel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.