load

American  

[lohd] / loʊd /

noun

• loads
  plural

1. anything put in or on something for conveyance or transportation; freight; cargo.

   The truck carried a load of watermelons.

2. the quantity that can be or usually is carried at one time, as in a cart.

   The maximum load for a wagon that size is only about 70 pounds.

3. this quantity taken as a unit of measure or weight or a discrete quantity (usually used in combination).

   carload;

   wagonload.

4. the quantity borne or sustained by something; burden.

   a tree weighed down by its load of fruit.

5. the weight supported by a structure or part.

6. the amount of work assigned to or to be done by a person, team, department, machine, or mechanical system; workload.

   An additional intern or assistant might lighten the load for the current staff on this project.

7. something that weighs down or oppresses like a burden; onus.

   Supporting her younger brothers has been a heavy load for her.

   Synonyms:

   encumbrance, weight

8. Informal. loads, a great quantity or number.

   loads of fun;

   loads of people.

9. the charge, projectile, etc., for a firearm.

10. a commission charged to buyers of mutual-fund shares.

11. Engineering. any of the forces that a structure is calculated to oppose, comprising any unmoving and unvarying force dead load, any load from wind or earthquake, and any other moving or temporary force live load.

12. Electricity.

    1. the power delivered by a generator, motor, power station, or transformer.

    2. a device that receives power.

13. Mechanics. the external resistance overcome by an engine, dynamo, or the like, under given conditions, measured and expressed in terms of the power required.

14. Geology. the burden of sediment being carried by a stream or river.

15. Slang. a sufficient amount of liquor drunk to cause intoxication.

    He's got a load on tonight.

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verb (used with object)

• loads,
  present (3rd person singular)
• loaded,
  past participle,  past
• loading
  present participle

1. to put a load on or in; fill.

   to load a ship.

   Synonyms:

   lade

2. to insert a charge, projectile, etc., into (a firearm).

3. to supply abundantly, lavishly, or excessively with something (often followed bydown ).

   They loaded us down with gifts.

4. to weigh down, burden, or oppress (often followed by down, with, on, etc.).

   to feel loaded down with responsibilities;

   to load oneself with obligations.

   Synonyms:

   encumber, weight

   Antonyms:

   disburden

5. to place (film, tape, etc.) into a camera or other device.

   He’s the employee responsible for loading and threading the film into the projector.

6. to place film, tape, etc., into (a camera or other device).

   The camera operator loaded the film magazine for the shoot, watched by the impatient director of photography.

7. to take on as a load.

   a ship loading coal.

8. to add to the weight of, sometimes fraudulently.

   The silver candlesticks were loaded with lead.

9. Insurance. to increase (the net premium) by adding charges, as for expenses.

10. to add additional or prejudicial meaning to (a statement, question, etc.).

    The attorney kept loading his questions in the hope of getting the reply he wanted.

11. to overcharge (a word, expression, etc.) with extraneous values of emotion, sentiment, or the like.

    emotion that loads any reference to home, flag, and mother.

12. to weight (dice) so that they will always come to rest with particular faces upward.

13. Baseball. to have or put runners at (first, second, and third bases).

    They loaded the bases with two out in the eighth inning.

14. Fine Arts.

    1. to place a large amount of pigment on (a brush).

    2. to apply a thick layer of pigment to (a canvas).

15. Metalworking.

    1. (of metal being deep-drawn) to become welded to (the drawing tool).

    2. (of material being ground) to fill the depressions in the surface of (a grinding wheel).

    3. (in powder metallurgy) to fill the cavity of (a die).

16. Computers.

    1. to bring (a program or data) into main storage from external or auxiliary storage.

    2. to make (an aspect of a program or website) visible, audible, playable, or otherwise executable.

       Your character is stuck in elevators between levels while the game loads the next world.

    3. to place (an input/output medium) into an appropriate device, as by inserting a disk into a disk drive.

17. Electricity. to add (a power-absorbing device) to an electric circuit.

verb (used without object)

• loads,
  present (3rd person singular)
• loaded,
  past participle,  past
• loading
  present participle

1. to put on or take on a load, as of passengers or goods.

   The bus usually loads at the side door.

2. to load a firearm.

3. to enter a carrier or conveyance (usually followed byinto ).

   The students loaded quickly into the buses.

4. to become filled or occupied.

   The ship loaded with people in only 15 minutes.

5. Computers. to make an aspect of a program or website visible, audible, playable, or otherwise executable.

   Is your operating system to blame if your browser is loading slow?

adjective

1. Computers. of or relating to the process of making an aspect of a program or website visible, audible, playable, or otherwise executable.

   The page load time was affecting ad revenue.

   Players have complained about texture load issues, but this should be addressed in the next patch.

adverb

1. Informal. loads, very much; a great deal.

   Thanks loads.

   It would help loads if you sent some money.

idioms

1. get a load of,

   1. to look at; notice; observe.

      Get a load of those crazy shoes!

   2. to listen to with interest.

      Did you get a load of what she said?

2. load the dice, to put someone or something in an advantageous or disadvantageous position; affect or influence the result.

   Lack of sufficient education loaded the dice against him as a candidate for the job.

load British  

/ ləʊd /

noun

1. something to be borne or conveyed; weight

2. 1. the usual amount borne or conveyed

   2. ( in combination )

      a carload

3. something that weighs down, oppresses, or burdens

   that's a load off my mind

4. a single charge of a firearm

5. the weight that is carried by a structure See also dead load live load

6. electrical engineering electronics

   1. a device that receives or dissipates the power from an amplifier, oscillator, generator, or some other source of signals

   2. the power delivered by a machine, generator, circuit, etc

7. the force acting on a component in a mechanism or structure

8. the resistance overcome by an engine or motor when it is driving a machine, etc

9. an external force applied to a component or mechanism

10. informal a quantity of

    a load of nonsense

11. informal pay attention to

12. slang to be intoxicated

13. slang (of a man) to ejaculate at orgasm

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verb

1. (also intr) to place or receive (cargo, goods, etc) upon (a ship, lorry, etc)

2. to burden or oppress

3. to supply or beset (someone) with in abundance or overwhelmingly

   they loaded her with gifts

4. to cause to be biased

   to load a question

5. (also intr) to put an ammunition charge into (a firearm)

6. photog to position (a film, cartridge, or plate) in (a camera)

7. to weight or bias (a roulette wheel, dice, etc)

8. insurance to increase (a premium) to cover expenses, etc

9. to draw power from (an electrical device, such as a generator)

10. to add material of high atomic number to (concrete) to increase its effectiveness as a radiation shield

11. to increase the power output of (an electric circuit)

12. to increase the work required from (an engine or motor)

13. to apply force to (a mechanism or component)

14. computing to transfer (a program) to a memory

15. 1. to add weights to dice in order to bias them

    2. to arrange to have a favourable or unfavourable position

load Scientific  

/ lōd /

1. The resistance, weight, or power drain sustained by a machine or electrical circuit.

2. Compare effort

3. The power output of a generator or power plant.

4. The amount of a pathogen or toxic substance present in an organism.

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load More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing load

• bricks shy of a load
• carbo load
• get a load of
• take the load off

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Synonym Usage

Load, burden referred originally to something placed on a person or animal or put into a vehicle for conveyance. Both load and burden are still used in this literal sense, though burden only infrequently, except in such fixed phrases as beast of burden and a ship of 1,500 tons burden (carrying capacity). Both words have come to be used figuratively to refer to duties, cares, etc., that are oppressively heavy, and this is now the main meaning of burden : You have taken a load off my mind. If work feels like a burden, you may be experiencing burnout.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• reload
  noun
• underload
  verb (used with object)
• loadless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• loads
  plural

Participles

• loading
  present
• loaded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• load
  simple
• loads
  simple
• have loaded
  perfect
• has loaded
  perfect
• am loading
  progressive
• are loading
  progressive
• is loading
  progressive
• have been loading
  perfect progressive
• has been loading
  perfect progressive

Past

• loaded
  simple
• had loaded
  perfect
• was loading
  progressive
• were loading
  progressive
• had been loading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will load
  simple
• will have loaded
  perfect
• will be loading
  progressive
• will have been loading
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of load

First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun lad(e), lod(e); originally the same word as lode ( def. ) ( Old English lād “way, course, carrying”); senses influenced by lade ( def. )

Explanation

A load is a bundle of stuff that has to be carried. You might spend your days hauling loads of hay into a barn and your evenings dragging loads of dirty clothes into the laundry room. Loads need to be picked up and hauled somewhere, like a load of firewood in a pickup truck or a load of supplies in a hiker's backpack. There are figurative loads too — the responsibility, hardship, or worry that you carry around with you: "Her teaching load is light, which is good because her sick cat is a heavy load on her mind." As a verb, load means "fill," like when you load your lunch box with Twinkies.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

load loads loaded loading

The Brahmaputra, one of the world's largest multi-channel rivers, ranks among the top five globally for both water discharge and sediment load.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

They’re gonna try and load up on as many treatments as possible, put as many things into place as they can for that eventuality.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Still, he notes that projects of that scale carry meaningful execution risk and success will hinge partly on Indonesia strengthening power infrastructure to reliably serve high-density data-center load.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

"Cargo vessels are being forced to wait or sail with a reduced load," a spokesperson at the Bulgarian government's Danube agency told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

"When you get things taken care of up here, I want you outside. Dad's got a full load of patients, and there's no reason I should have to do all the yard work myself."

From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville

Or can we have a Zoom because I have loads of questions?’” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

The catering truck, which typically loads in-flight meals, parked on the right side of Air Force One, partially shielded from media cameras.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

Across recorded history, they have hunted beside us, guarded homes, carried loads, managed livestock and provided companionship.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

Cargo ships have managed to continue transporting goods along the waterway, which flows through the industrial heartland of Europe's top economy, albeit with reduced loads and at higher costs.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

He pulled out loads of bog paper to mop up the spillage.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

Fenton set Hopkins up with a keyboard loaded with samples of every instrument, and an internal switch was flipped: now the actor could compose for orchestra.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Hayley Chapman, from Northfield, who flew with her family to Turkey on Friday said no luggage at all was loaded on to the plane, and they had received no information as to its whereabouts.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

She loaded boxes of evidence into a White House meeting with Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to prove to the president that it was Burgum who had caused this problem for the president.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026

They’re not high-rises, but multi-tier spreads in the mold of seafood towers that instead are loaded with buns, wieners and more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Finally, rubble and tools were loaded into the trucks, and the robots fell in line.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

A man was seen loading several items into a vehicle at the property, he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

The drill was held hours after President Lai Ching-te visited the nearby Taipei Port where he observed the loading of missiles and mines onto ships.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

Olejniczak Marodi was captured on the security camera gathering pets and luggage and loading them into a Chevrolet Equinox SUV, according to the warrant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Another tanker, which did not appear on ship tracking data, was also seen loading military vehicles at Baltiysk on 6 June.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

He was a powder monkey, which meant it was his job to rush heavy bags of explosive gunpowder to the men loading the cannons.

From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis

Related Words

• amount
• bundle
• capacity
• consignment
• goods
• haul
• payload
• shipment
• weight