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 of cargo

• payload
• burden
• loading
• load
• freight

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

The company launches satellites, cargo, and astronauts for NASA, the Pentagon, and commercial customers. —Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 20 May 2026

Ferries, cargo ships and tankers cut through choppy waters in the San Francisco Bay Tuesday as a whale surfaced nearby, its spout barely visible against the white caps. —ABC News, 20 May 2026

About 7,000 vessel passages occur each year, moving more than 86 million tons of cargo. —Victoria E. Freile, USA Today, 20 May 2026

After the engine flew off a UPS cargo plane and caused a crash that killed 15 people in Kentucky, investigators quickly discovered cracks in parts of the engine mount. —Josh Funk, AJC.com, 20 May 2026

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

Rhymes for cargo

• acknow
• aglow
• ago
• airglow
• aloe
• altho
• although
• ammo
• backflow
• backhoe
• banjo
• barbeau

Kids Definition

cargo

noun

car·​go ˈkär-ˌgō 

plural cargoes or cargos

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