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.
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
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
The airport has brought on Chinese-speaking staff and plans to demolish old military air hangars to make more freighter parking and warehouse space, according to Torsten Wefers, the airport’s vice president of sales and marketing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
A runaway freighter full of gypsum rammed a steel bridge, but the cause was crew inattention, not mechanical like Baltimore.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2024
Two days after that, Billy was turned over to the Americans, who shipped him home on a very slow freighter called the Lucretia A. Mott.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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.
