bucketful

A bucketful is a noun meaning the amount that a bucket can contain. It is an informal unit of volume rather than a precise measurement, because bucket sizes vary widely across containers and contexts. In everyday use, a bucketful is approximately what a typical bucket can hold, commonly about two to five gallons (roughly seven to nineteen liters), though actual capacity depends on the bucket.

Etymology and form: The word is a straightforward compound of bucket and the suffix -ful, meaning “full of.” It is usually written as a single word and pluralizes as bucketfuls when referring to more than one amount.

Usage notes: The term appears in cooking, cleaning, gardening, and construction contexts, as well as in literature and speech to convey a sense of a sizable quantity. It can be used figuratively to describe a large or abundant amount of something, for example, “a bucketful of ideas.” In formal or technical writing, precise measurements are preferred over a bucketful.

See also: Bucket, Volume, Pailful.