cargo

noun

car·​go ˈkär-(ˌ)gō 

plural cargoes or cargos

: the goods or merchandise conveyed in a ship, airplane, or vehicle : freight

Dock workers were unloading the ship's cargo.

Synonyms

• burden
• draft
• freight
• haul
• lading
• load
• loading
• payload
• weight

Examples of cargo in a Sentence

The ship was carrying a cargo of crude oil.

we put all of our cargo on the pack animals and began our journey through the canyon

Recent Examples on the Web

With the amount of air cargo passing through Anchorage each day, the potential for economic losses could be immense, but with appropriate ash monitoring and warning, some of that cost can be avoided. —Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

To avoid cultural-repatriation laws, Staley had a trove of literary papers smuggled out of France in a bakery truck; to avoid apartheid-era sanctions, Horowitz had Nadine Gordimer’s archive shipped out of South Africa as a cargo of books. —Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024

But closing the bridge to cargo would have major impacts on business. —Elizabeth L. T. Moore, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Oct. 2024

The ship measured 15 meters long according to the museum and is thought to have stored up to 20 tons of cargo. —Ashlyn Messier, Fox News, 18 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, load, charge, from cargar to load, from Late Latin carricare — more at charge entry 1

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing cargo

• cargo cult
• cargo pants
• cargo pocket

Kids Definition

cargo

noun

car·​go ˈkär-ˌgō 

plural cargoes or cargos

: the goods transported in a ship, airplane, or vehicle : freight