payload

noun

pay·​load ˈpā-ˌlōd 

plural payloads

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 people or things (such as passengers or instruments) necessary to the purpose of the flight

NASA's first post-Challenger launching is tentatively set for May 1. Its payload, the NOAA-G weather satellite, will be lofted by an expendable Scout rocket.

—J. Eberhart

Their objective was to size the airplane according to its intended payload.

—Clive Irving

2

: the weight of a payload

… the Bronco had a payload of 2000 pounds.

—Darryl Young

Maximum fuel load is 3,550 pounds, leaving a payload of just 360 pounds with full tanks.

—J. Mac McClellan

3

: the destructive component carried by a missile or bomb

… they did not fail to realize that a missile powerful enough to put a satellite into orbit could also deliver a nuclear payload to Washington, D.C., or New York, or Chicago, or any major American city.

—Alex Wellerstein

also : something likened to such a payload

American computer security experts were first to spot another worm whose virus payload was contained within an e-mail that masqueraded as a virus alert from Symantec.

—Pacific Business News

Thus, a potential pitfall for using adenoviruses as a vaccine delivery system is that a person's immune system may end up responding more to the adenovirus itself than the vaccine's genetic payload …

—Beth Mole

Synonyms

• burden
• cargo
• draft
• freight
• haul
• lading
• load
• loading
• weight

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 on the Web

As its primary payload, the Certification 1 mission will carry a lunar lander built by Astrobotic, which will attempt to make a soft touchdown on the Moon early next year. —Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 15 Nov. 2023

Bailey and co say a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket could deliver a 2500kg payload towards an incoming asteroid. —Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2023

The drones have a roughly nine-mile range, depending on payload size. —Serhii Korolchuk, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023

The drone team showed us other videos, which, according to the soldiers, showed Punisher drones earlier that morning accurately dropping their payload onto Russian military vehicles. —Tom Soufi Burridge, ABC News, 29 Sep. 2023

At the end of the day, the best slingshots are ones that will deliver the payload with authority while being easy to handle. —Jim Cobb, Field & Stream, 13 Sep. 2023

Depending on how tests go and the specific requirements of the situation, LTA expects the airship to have a payload of between 4,400 and 11,000 pounds. —Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 9 Nov. 2023

For now, SpaceX has demonstrated the capabilities and safety record to carry these payloads. —Jon Gertner, New York Times, 8 Nov. 2023

The Ramcharger is rated to tow up to 14,000 pounds and can carry a payload up to 2,625 pounds. —Umar Shakir, The Verge, 7 Nov. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

payload

noun

pay·​load ˈpā-ˌlōd 

: something (as cargo, passengers, instruments, or explosives) carried by a vehicle in addition to what is necessary for its operation