freighter
Americannoun
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a vessel used mainly for carrying cargo.
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a large aircraft or spacecraft used primarily for transporting cargo and equipment.
The space station of the future will be supplied by robot freighters.
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a person whose occupation it is to receive and forward freight.
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a person for whom freight is transported; shipper.
noun
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a ship or aircraft designed for transporting cargo
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a person concerned with the loading or chartering of a ship
Etymology
Origin of freighter
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.
A headlong drive for efficiency cut the average time needed to assemble a “Liberty Ship” freighter from around eight months shortly after Pearl Harbor to barely one month by 1945.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Qatar's defence ministry also said a freighter arriving in its waters from Abu Dhabi was hit by a drone.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
The MD-11F freighter operated by UPS, crashed after one of its engines separated from the wing as it was preparing to take off from Louisville.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
The freighter was quickly unloaded and flew back to China carrying only empty pallets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
It would have been as sorrowful a sound in that heavy fog as anyone could readily conjure or imagine, and as it grew louder—as the freighter drew closer—it would have sounded all the more forlorn.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
