freight
Americannoun
-
goods, cargo, or lading transported for pay, whether by water, land, or air.
-
the ordinary conveyance or means of transport of goods provided by common carriers (distinguished from express).
Shipping by freight is less expensive.
-
the charges, fee, or compensation paid for such transportation.
We pay the freight.
- Synonyms:
- haulage, freightage
-
(especially in Britain) the cargo, or any part of the cargo, of a vessel; merchandise transported by water.
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Chiefly British. transportation of goods by water.
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Slang. cost or price, especially when high.
I'd like a larger house, but can't afford the freight.
verb (used with object)
-
freights,
present (3rd person singular)
-
freighted,
past participle, past
-
freighting
present participle
-
to load; burden.
a story heavily freighted with private meaning.
- Synonyms:
- charge
-
to load with goods or merchandise for transportation.
It took all night to freight the ship.
-
to transport as freight; send by freight.
noun
-
-
commercial transport that is slower and cheaper than express
-
the price charged for such transport
-
goods transported by this means
-
( as modifier )
freight transport
-
-
a ship's cargo or part of it
verb
-
to load with goods for transport
-
to convey commercially as or by freight
-
to load or burden; charge
Synonym Usage
Freight, cargo, shipment refer to goods being transported from place to place. Freight is the general term for goods transported from one place to another by any means: to send freight from New York to New Orleans. Cargo is the term generally used for goods carried by ship or plane: to send a cargo to Europe. Shipment is a quantity of goods destined for a particular place, no matter how sent: a shipment of potatoes.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
freightsimple
-
freightssimple
-
have freightedperfect
-
has freightedperfect
-
am freightingprogressive
-
are freightingprogressive
-
is freightingprogressive
-
have been freightingperfect progressive
-
has been freightingperfect progressive
Past
-
freightedsimple
-
had freightedperfect
-
was freightingprogressive
-
were freightingprogressive
-
had been freightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of freight
1350–1400; Middle English freyght (noun), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vrecht, variant of vracht. See fraught
Explanation
Like many nouns that can mean an action as well as an actual thing, freight refers to either the sending of goods or the goods themselves. It can also mean the charge for sending goods. You pay freight for the freight of your freight. Freight can also be used as a verb. If you freight a train with goods, you load it up with items to be shipped, and if you freight your furniture to your new home in another state, you send it there. Use freight like this only if you are sending your things a long distance. If you your new apartment is only across town, you would say that you're moving your things to your new place.
Vocabulary lists containing freight
Beowulf vocabulary
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"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
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Crossing the Wire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Rising insurance costs and tightness in the supply of vessels means it’s not just wet freight costs that are booming.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Between August and September, at least 16 freight companies across the country filed for bankruptcy amid record diesel prices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Other measures backed by the Welsh government include improving the A465 for freight, such as providing facilities for HGVs.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
International benchmark oil prices remain around $100 a barrel despite recovering exports, reflecting fears that renewed attacks could again curb flows and keep freight and security costs elevated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
Captain Bowles had built a profitable trade carrying freight back and forth between Portsmouth and the nation’s capital.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
The duchess freights whatever products she releases with opinion and emotions, as we’ll soon see once her recently renamed, freshly launched brand As Ever gets up and running.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2025
The sheer cost of her course load freights every school day with expectation.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 8, 2019
Rounders such as Johnson would hop freights if they had no money for a regular ticket.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 24, 2017
Whereas The Bachelor freights every sidelong glance with portent, DWTS’s stumbles and heartbreaks are all edited to make the stakes feel as low as possible.
From Slate ● May 24, 2016
"Three empty freights kindling wood, front of the engine stove in," reported the fireman.
From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Allen Chapman
Maybe this is why I have long treated “Ask a Manager” as both advice column and anthropological expedition behind the cubicle wall, where completely ordinary behaviors can become freighted with professional meaning.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Yet until now, the orchestra has never reprised this intensely thoughtful and emotionally freighted piece.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The fruit is pre-cooled for five hours before being packed and transported in refrigerated vans and then stored in cold rooms before being air freighted.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Can you please unpack the really freighted language in the birthright citizenship clause that is “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2026
Hie word was freighted with such seductiveness that Kaede picked up the goblet without hesitation.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
And, he said, growth in freighting has slowed in the years since the pandemic boost, with warehouses seeing higher job vacancy rates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2025
Shannon frames each scene in his modest film with care, freighting many of his shots through doors and windows with meaning.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2023
One of the islands' main salmon exporters - Hiddenfjord - is also doing its bit, by ceasing the air freighting of its fresh fish.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2021
The company turned briefly to air freighting products to meet demand, but at five or six times the cost of sea freight, it cut into the company’s profits.
From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2021
Although he no longer ran a freighting business full-time, he still moved some goods and welcomed my assistance.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
