as in bullets
a usually round or cone-shaped little piece of lead made to be fired from a firearm
the tightly packed pellets of a shotgun cartridge
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Recent Examples of pellets
Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 26 Mar. 2026
His dad needed to pop in to check something, and what caught Will’s eye was a large drum of polyethylene pellets, the raw bits that get melted down and stretched into plastic wrap and plastic bags.
—Eric Boodman, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2026
An Orbeez-type gun is typically used to shoot pellets containing liquid.
—Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2026
Embrace the slightly dystopian vibe and buy a bag of pellets from one of the old-timey pioneer stores to hand-feed the furry descendants.
—Zoey Goto, Travel + Leisure, 8 Mar. 2026
At the conference in Worcester, Andrus presented one plan put together by Upper Blackstone, the Narragansett Bay Commission and Springfield, Massachusetts, to build a single facility that would turn sludge into nutrient-rich pellets for land application.
—Alex Kuffner, The Providence Journal, 3 Mar. 2026
The older boy had dozens of pellets in his face, but amazingly none hit his eyes.
—ABC News, 27 Feb. 2026
Now, blasting aliens and gobbling power pellets with his sons has become sacred bonding time.
—Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 26 Feb. 2026
Rain may mix with wet snowflakes or a few sleet pellets, especially northwest of Baltimore.
—Cutter Martin, CBS News, 26 Feb. 2026
Noun
The safest fertilizers to apply are organic, low analysis (the three numbers representing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all single digits), or slow-release pellets.
—Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 26 Mar. 2026
His dad needed to pop in to check something, and what caught Will’s eye was a large drum of polyethylene pellets, the raw bits that get melted down and stretched into plastic wrap and plastic bags.
—Eric Boodman, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2026
An Orbeez-type gun is typically used to shoot pellets containing liquid.
—Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2026
Embrace the slightly dystopian vibe and buy a bag of pellets from one of the old-timey pioneer stores to hand-feed the furry descendants.
—Zoey Goto, Travel + Leisure, 8 Mar. 2026
At the conference in Worcester, Andrus presented one plan put together by Upper Blackstone, the Narragansett Bay Commission and Springfield, Massachusetts, to build a single facility that would turn sludge into nutrient-rich pellets for land application.
—Alex Kuffner, The Providence Journal, 3 Mar. 2026
The older boy had dozens of pellets in his face, but amazingly none hit his eyes.
—ABC News, 27 Feb. 2026
Now, blasting aliens and gobbling power pellets with his sons has become sacred bonding time.
—Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 26 Feb. 2026
Rain may mix with wet snowflakes or a few sleet pellets, especially northwest of Baltimore.
—Cutter Martin, CBS News, 26 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pellets
Noun
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According to Navarro, the boy’s father believed the rifle was empty of bullets.—
Rick Hurd,
Mercury News,
30 Mar. 2026
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The attack was traumatizing, and the windows cracked by the barrage of bullets the gunman leveled at the agency have still not been replaced, nearly eight months later.—
Helen Branswell,
STAT,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Five of them will be white balls with numbers from 1 to 70.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
-
The cannonball joins over 250,000 artifacts found at the site, the expert added, which mostly include ceramic pieces, musket balls, adobe floor fragments and glass bottles.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Like generations of potential treatments before it, KRSA-028 is designed to break down a protein called amyloid that clumps up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.—
Allison DeAngelis,
STAT,
18 Feb. 2026
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However, sometimes the abnormal IgA (the antibody that clumps up and causes problems) does run in families.—
Brandi Jones,
Health,
15 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Most lumps such as these are noncancerous lipomas, or fatty tumors, and a decision on whether to remove them is based on whether the lumps interfere with movements or threaten other issues.—
Joan Morris,
Mercury News,
16 Mar. 2026
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Advertisement Breaking it down Artificial intelligence is an umbrella-term for several different technologies, from autonomous vehicles to chatbots—and the database lumps these together without a comprehensive structure.—
Harry Booth,
Time,
19 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pellets.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pellets. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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