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.
Consider the March 1942 sinking of the British freighter Induna.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
In one operation about 35 nautical miles from the small island of Gavdos, off Crete, a coastguard vessel, a Danish freighter and a helicopter took 365 people off a fishing boat, according to the agency.
From Barron's • Dec. 26, 2025
In the meantime factories building the 737 Max, the 777 and the 767 freighter have all been affected by the walk outs.
From BBC • Sep. 16, 2024
A seagoing freighter as long as two football fields slammed into a support pier and the bridge connecting Lower Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2024
The ship they were particularly anxious to get quickly into port was the Aleksandrovsk, a freighter carrying twenty-four hydrogen bomb warheads for intermediate-range missiles, along with forty-four tactical nuclear warheads.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
