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 burning packages inside of an Amazon cargo container on a train in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. —Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 16 Apr. 2026

Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News that spoofing or manipulating the tracking system can obscure a vessel's origins, destination and cargo. —Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 16 Apr. 2026

Article continues below About an hour after each launch, the Falcon 9 upper stage deployed its cargo, sending the satellites on track to join the SpaceX low Earth orbit megaconstellation. —Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com, 15 Apr. 2026

Airports Council International's annual report was released Tuesday analyzing total passengers, international passengers, air cargo and aircraft movements to identify the busiest airports in the world. —Irene Wright, USA Today, 15 Apr. 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