tonnage

noun

ton·​nage ˈtə-nij 

1

a

: the cubical content of a merchant ship in units of 100 cubic feet

b

: the displacement of a warship

2

a

: total weight in tons shipped, carried, or produced

b

: impressively large amount or weight

3

: a duty formerly levied on every tun of wine imported into England

4

a

: a duty or impost on vessels based on cargo capacity

b

: a duty on goods per ton transported

5

: ships in terms of the total number of tons registered or carried or of their carrying capacity

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Certain vessels, including those exceeding 800 net tonnage or carrying potentially dangerous cargoes, must be towed by tugboats, with canal pilots assisting in the passage. Dimitris Sideridis, CNN, 11 Nov. 2022

The state’s record-breaking 2020 fire season spewed almost twice the tonnage of greenhouse gases as the total amount of reductions made since 2003. Laura Blasey, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2022

The depth of ships’ drafts, or the distance between the waterline and the deepest point of the boat, are now limited to 41 feet upriver of the port of Baton Rouge, the nation’s eighth-largest by tonnage, the U.S. Coast Guard said late Friday. Kim Chipman Bloomberg News (tns), al, 23 Oct. 2022

Through August of this year, the percentage is down to 38% by value and 62% by tonnage. Ken Roberts, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2022

Total tonnage, or the total weight of ships of the Chinese Navy, would increase from today’s 1.3 million tons to approximately two million tons. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 6 Sep. 2022

As a result, tonnage tax systems were often a good deal for governments. Nicolas Rivero, Quartz, 23 Aug. 2022

What haunts the household in this classic of 19th century realism isn’t so much the spirit of the dead, dissolute patriarch, Captain Alving, as the tonnage of family secrets buried in the bad faith and moribund morality of a shameful past. Charles Mcnulty, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2022

White officers pitted different divisions against each other, pushing the sailors to race to load the most tonnage during their shifts. Matthew F. Delmont, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Aug. 2022

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Word History

Etymology

in sense 3, from Middle English, from Anglo-French, from tonne tun; in other senses, from ton entry 1 — more at tunnel

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Kids Definition

tonnage

noun

ton·​nage ˈtən-ij 

1

: a tax on ships based on tons carried

2

: ships in terms of the total number of tons that are or can be carried

3

: total weight in tons shipped, carried, or mined