Container: meaning, definitions and examples

General term for any object that holds or stores items.

• She put the leftover food in a container.
• The laboratory used different containers for chemical samples.

Usually refers to a rectangular or square container with a lid, often for storage or packaging.

• He received a box of chocolates for his birthday.
• The toys are kept in a wooden box.

Typically used for larger, often open-topped containers, usually for trash or recycling.

• Throw the garbage in the trash bin.
• The recycling bin is full of plastic bottles.

More commonly used for containers that hold liquids, often with a more formal or scientific connotation.

• The scientist carefully poured the liquid into a glass vessel.
• The ship’s captain looked through a vessel containing a rare wine.

Used broadly for any item that holds other items. Suitable for general situations and professional or technical contexts.

• The shipping container arrived this morning
• She put the leftovers in a plastic container

Commonly used for storage and transport of goods, especially heavy or bulky items. Often implies something solid, made of wood or plastic.

• They moved the furniture in large wooden crates
• The farmer packed the apples into a crate

Refers to a container that holds liquids, often used in more formal or technical contexts. Can also refer to boats or ships.

• The laboratory uses glass vessels for experiments
• The ancient vessel was discovered during the excavation

Specifically refers to a box made from cardboard or paperboard, often used for packaging food or beverages.

• He bought a carton of milk
• The eggs are stored in a carton to protect them

Typically used in computing to describe a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another.

• Docker containers make it easy to deploy applications across different environments.
• The application is running in a container to ensure consistency across development and production.

Refers to creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a server, a storage device, or network resources, typically used to improve resource utilization and increase flexibility in IT services.

• Server virtualization helps in reducing the physical hardware footprint.
• By using virtualization, we can run multiple operating systems on a single machine.

Used to describe a separate testing environment that isolates untested code changes and experiments from the live production environment.

• Developers are working on the new feature in a sandbox to avoid affecting the live application.
• The sandbox environment allows us to test new code safely.

Commonly used in computing to denote the entire setup where software is developed, tested, and run, including hardware, operating systems, applications, and network configurations.

• The development environment is set up with all necessary libraries and tools.
• Switching to a new environment caused some compatibility issues.