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Something that is laden seems to be, or actually is, weighed down by the large amount of whatever it’s carrying: tree branches laden with fruit bend toward the ground; newspaper articles laden with technical jargon are hard to read; and sugar-laden cereal is very, very sweet. Laden has been used as an adjective to describe heavily loaded things for a millennium, but its source is an even older verb: lade, meaning primarily "to load something." Lade today mostly occurs in contexts relating to shipping; its related noun lading may be familiar from the phrase bill of lading, which refers to a document listing goods to be shipped and the terms of their transport. Laden is itself sometimes used as a verb meaning "to load something" (as in "ladening the truck with equipment"), and an adjectival form of that word sometimes appears too, as in "a truck ladened with equipment." Plain old laden is preferred in such cases though: "a truck laden with equipment."
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Examples of laden in a Sentence
Sam Reed, Glamour, 9 Nov. 2023
With early voting underway since mid-October, the state is a frenzy of television and social media ads, multiple rallies a day and doorknobs laden with campaign literature, with each side accusing the other of being too extreme for Ohio.
—Lisa Lerer, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2023
And for a movie that the filmmakers claim is laden with jokes and potential memes, there’s a line that perhaps helps unite both the worlds of extreme zombie-massacring violence, and 1990s chart hero Vanilla Ice – and could become one of its most repeated.
—Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Nov. 2023
But the technological revolution – once an amorphous, frothy concept itself, laden with dreams and dire forecasts – has now shifted tangible parts of the mundane elements in our lives.
—Stephanie Hanes, The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Oct. 2023
As if that wasn't enough, a nearby table was laden with other goodies including candy apples, a bat cake, sugar cookies and Rice Krispies treats
The trees were wrapped in cobwebs, lit with twinkly lights and decorated with floating witches' hats.
—Erin Clack, Peoplemag, 21 Oct. 2023
Home options range from townhomes to luxurious residences, set among massive oak trees laden with Spanish moss.
—Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 15 Oct. 2023
Down a dirt walkway was a cross laden with leis and a photo of Mr. Estores-Losano.
—Corina Knoll, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2023
Wake up with a bowl of frozen acai laden with guarana syrup.
—Caroline Shin, Bon Appétit, 13 Oct. 2023
Kyle Lamar Rice, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2023
But that context — including who shouts the phrase and who studiously avoids uttering it — has ladened it with pernicious meaning in particular quarters.
—Max Fisher, New York Times, 16 June 2016
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'laden.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Laden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laden. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.
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More from Merriam-Webster on laden
Nglish: Translation of laden for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of laden for Arabic Speakers
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