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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."
Synonyms
Examples of laden in a Sentence
Eric Tucker, Fortune, 16 Apr. 2024
Some dragged tents or pulled wagons laden with bags and boxes.
—Calmatters, The Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2024
While laden with $4.5 billion in debt, AMC has enough cash on hand to get through 2024, according to Aron.
—Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Apr. 2024
And with the Olympics looming, this year feels laden with possibilities.
—George Ramsay, CNN, 9 Apr. 2024
Bodies lay decomposing in the hospital's dirt courtyard, which was laden with unexploded ordnance.
—Aya Batrawy, NPR, 6 Apr. 2024
Darabont, who was fired following the show’s first season, after sending a barrage of expletive laden emails, won a whopping $200 million settlement in 2021.
—Gene Maddaus, Variety, 26 Mar. 2024
From a bar that’s a replica of one that went down with the Titanic to a room designed to display a collection of designer shoes, this Florida mansion is laden with extravagant custom details.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 2 Apr. 2024
With disaster averted, Martin showed up in his white truck, pulling a trailer laden with shiny heat pump parts.
—Tik Root, WIRED, 30 Mar. 2024
Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, and Tia Goldenberg, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2024
The retailers’ graveyard is filled with once-proud brands, from upscale department store chain Lord & Taylor to RadioShack to Toys ‘R’ Us to Payless Shoes, all of which were forced into bankruptcy and closure due to the unaffordable debt that private equity owners ladened onto their balance sheets.
—Chris Isidore, CNN, 27 Feb. 2024
Now, she’s coupled her truly extraordinary physical talent with a thriving music career, creating dynamic music videos laden with dance breaks reminiscent of a young Britney’s.
—Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 25 Jan. 2024
There are pieces ladened with logos, perfect for showing off at a casual cocktail party.
—Michael Loré, Robb Report, 30 Nov. 2023
The interview seemed straightforward until a rogue comment unknowingly ladened with micro-aggressions brought everything to a halt.
—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
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.
Dictionary Entries Near laden
Cite this Entry
“Laden.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laden. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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