payload

noun pay·load \ ˈpā-ˌlōd \

Definition of payload

1 : the load carried by a vehicle exclusive of what is necessary for its operation; especially : the load carried by an aircraft or spacecraft consisting of things (such as passengers or instruments) necessary to the purpose of the flight

2 : the weight of a payload

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Examples of payload in a Sentence

The truck is carrying a payload of 2,580 pounds.
the space shuttle can carry a maximum payload of approximately 50,000 pounds

Recent Examples of payload from the Web

The highly versatile, supersonic B-1 is considered the backbone of the US long range bomber fleet and carries the largest conventional payload of any aircraft in the US Air Force.

— zachary cohen and ryan browne, CNN, "N. Korea accuses US of 'nuclear strike drill' after bomber flights," 2 Nov. 2017
The bulk of the planes were Cessna 206 and 201 models — reliable, fast and able to carry heavy payloads, the kind of aircraft favored by drug-trafficking organizations, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson.

— kristina davis, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Former Chula Vista airplane broker gets prison for heading money-laundering ring," 11 Oct. 2017
In January 2017, DefenseNews reported that XLUUV would have a payload bay of at least 325 cubic feet.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Boeing, Lockheed Win Contract to Develop Navy's Extra-Large Unmanned Sub," 4 Oct. 2017
For myriad reasons, NASA is choosing to abandon this safety dictum and launch its astronauts on the heaviest rocket ever, SLS, which will simultaneously be carrying payloads.

— terry virts, Ars Technica, "Op-ed: The Deep Space Gateway would shackle human exploration, not enable it," 28 Sep. 2017
Delivering these payloads would not be challenging, as North Korean missiles are capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons in place of conventional explosives.

— chicagotribune.com, "A sneak peak at America's war plans for North Korea," 8 Sep. 2017
The Boeing-Lockheed venture expects to have a new engine fully tested by 2019 and a replacement rocket, called Vulcan, certified to carry Pentagon payloads by 2022 or 2023.

— andy pasztor, WSJ, "Pentagon Faces Delays in Shift Away From Russian Rocket Engines," 4 Sep. 2017
In successfully testing its self-landing Falcon 9 rockets, SpaceX has become a leader in supersonic retropropulsion—a braking method that will be crucial to slowing down large payloads in Mars’s wispy atmosphere.

— National Geographic, "Watch: Elon Musk’s Audacious Plan for Putting Humans on Mars," 27 Sep. 2016
Those concerns appeared to have some merit, especially after SpaceX endured difficult financial years in 2015 and 2016, when the company lost two Falcon 9 rockets (one during launch and the other during a ground test) along with a payload.

— eric berger, Ars Technica, "SpaceX unlocks “steamroller” achievement as company eyes 19 launches in 2017," 27 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'payload.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of payload

1914

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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payload Synonyms

Synonyms

burden, cargo, draft, freight, haul, lading, load, loading, weight;

Related Words

consignment;

boatload, carload, shipload, trainload, truckload, wagonload;

ballast, deadweight;

overload, surcharge;

bale, bundle, pack, package, packet, parcel, shipment;

manifest;

body, bulk, mass;

PAYLOAD Defined for English Language Learners

payload

noun

Definition of payload for English Language Learners

: the amount of goods or material that is carried by a vehicle (such as a truck)
: the things (such as passengers or bombs) that are carried by an aircraft or spacecraft
: the weight of a payload

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