Metapackages describe a set of packages that are used together. Metapackages are referenced just like any other NuGet package. By referencing a metapackage, you have, in effect, added a reference to each of its dependent packages.
Older versions of Visual Studio 2017 nicely showed the relationship between metapackages, packages, and assemblies, as shown in the following screenshot:
Metapackages are often just referred to as packages in Microsoft's documentation, as you are about to see.
The following list contains links to some common metapackages and packages, including an official list of their dependencies:
