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
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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:
Local sub-prefect Agathe Cury said freight and Eurostar passenger traffic through the tunnel had not been disrupted after a brief stoppage to evacuate injured people.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Three different rail services operate through the tunnel - the Eurostar, a passenger train that begins in London and goes to several European destinations, freight trains which transport goods and Le Shuttle, which transports vehicles.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
“Supply, inventories and geopolitical risk all play a role, but one factor benefits Brent specifically: its short-haul nature at a time when freight is unusually expensive,” they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Container freight rates are surging on strong cargo volumes ahead of anticipated changes to U.S.-China tariffs and supply disruptions caused by typhoons in China, the analyst writes in a note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
He rolled a blanket and started slowly eastward, sometimes walking and sometimes with groups of men on the rods under slow-moving freight cars.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
There’s something of a pattern here, one that freights that statement with irony.
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2023
Although it initially freights our empathy scale to favor Gauthier's side, the story humanizes all parties as it progresses.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2022
At night, the carriage can rock while negotiating a bend and freights enter your dreams as their cargo thrums past but these minor intrusions authenticate a true railway experience.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 29, 2020
The sheer cost of her course load freights every school day with expectation.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 8, 2019
Good markets and cheap freights are of the utmost importance to agriculture.
From Monopolies and the People by D. C. Cloud
TORONTO—Over the past 17 months, as President Trump has freighted Canada’s economy with several rounds of punishing tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney has often repeated the guiding maxim for his negotiations with the U.S.:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Dramatists are more cognizant than ever of the sociopolitical import of these contradictions and they’ve been chronicling the way this historically freighted baggage emerges in the drama of everyday life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 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
But this is a story freighted with symbolism and one which has drawn outsized international attention because of its connection to that other world religion - football.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
Barringer believed that the crater had been formed by a ten-million-ton meteor, heavily freighted with iron and nickel, and it was his confident expectation that he would make a fortune digging it out.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The heatwave lowered levels in the Rhine River - a major shipping route - limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 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
Environmental advocates have long warned about the dangers of trains freighting hazardous chemicals.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 14, 2023
What’s fallen off a little is the stories freighting that message.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
Besides, freighting the timber to northern mills would keep his railroad cars puffing.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
