as in cargo
a mass or quantity of something taken up and carried, conveyed, or transported
the space shuttle can carry a maximum payload of approximately 50,000 pounds
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of payload
Isar's Spectrum rocket is designed to place up to 1 metric ton (2,200 pounds) of payload mass into low-Earth orbit, or 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit.
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ArsTechnica, 9 July 2025
The spacecraft will carry 30 science payloads, all but one of which will be to test technology under lunar-like conditions.
—Eric Lagatta, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025
The latest flight with a payload of 27 Starlink satellites lifted off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:28 a.m. coming just over nine hours since launch No. 499 from neighboring Kennedy Space Center, which sent up a European weather satellite.
—Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 July 2025
The Israeli Air Force handled Iran's air defense system with ease, so much so that Israeli pilots established air superiority over the country and greased the skids for U.S. B-2 bombers to drop their 30,000-pound payloads on two of Iran's main nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
—Daniel R. Depetris, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for payload
ArsTechnica, 9 July 2025
The spacecraft will carry 30 science payloads, all but one of which will be to test technology under lunar-like conditions.
—Eric Lagatta, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025
The latest flight with a payload of 27 Starlink satellites lifted off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:28 a.m. coming just over nine hours since launch No. 499 from neighboring Kennedy Space Center, which sent up a European weather satellite.
—Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 July 2025
The Israeli Air Force handled Iran's air defense system with ease, so much so that Israeli pilots established air superiority over the country and greased the skids for U.S. B-2 bombers to drop their 30,000-pound payloads on two of Iran's main nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
—Daniel R. Depetris, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for payload
Recent Examples of Synonyms for payload
Noun
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Earlier this year, a FedEx cargo plane had to make an emergency landing shortly after it was set ablaze from hitting a bird.—
Colson Thayer,
People.com,
23 July 2025
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That's important particularly at this point in time, when reports note improvements in cargo fleets' carbon intensity, but also increased emissions from shipping and astronomically high projections of emissions in the future.—
Abhimanyu Ghoshal,
New Atlas,
22 July 2025
Noun
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If not Arenado, there are still a load of veterans who could move this week.—
Levi Weaver,
New York Times,
28 July 2025
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For example, another Reddit user showed off a photo of a load of groceries that Agent apparently purchased.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
28 July 2025
Noun
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The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures an SSD's speed in performing a variety of routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
16 July 2025
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Indeed tariffs typically take several months to feed through to inflation data, while the significant front loading of imports implies that few goods may have been subject to tariffs yet.—
Fred Imbert,
CNBC,
15 July 2025
Noun
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Users often juggle dozens—sometimes hundreds—of credentials, leading to frequent resets, weak reuse and support burdens.—
Peter Barker,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
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Kenya’s foreign debt burden came under the spotlight in two separate ratings agency reports.—
Preeti Jha,
semafor.com,
28 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Payload.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/payload. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.
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