freight

freight — noun

1. Goods and materials carried across land, sea, or air aboard ships, trains, truck

1.nounB1
Definition

Goods and materials carried across land, sea, or air aboard ships, trains, trucks, and aircraft.

Example

The freight from China arrived at the port of Kaohsiung on Tuesday morning.

noun subject: freight from [place]

Most freight in Europe travels by rail rather than by road.

Common collocations
  • ship freight
  • carry freight
  • freight train
  • freight ship
  • freight truck
  • freight charges
  • freight forwarding
Synonyms
  • cargo

    used especially for goods carried by ship or aircraft

  • goods

    a more general term for items being sold or transported

  • shipment

    focuses on a single batch of goods being sent together

Antonyms
  • passenger

    people carried by a vehicle, not goods

Grammar Patterns

freight + verb

the freight + preposition + place

Usage Note

An uncountable noun — you cannot say 'a freight' or 'freights' to mean a single item. Use 'a piece of freight' or 'an item of freight' for one unit.

Common Mistakes

The freights arrived late.
The freight arrived late.
'freight' is uncountable and does not take a plural form.
I need to send a freight to my customer.
I need to send a shipment to my customer.
'freight' refers to the category of goods, not a single package.

2. The amount of money that a transport company charges to move goods from one plac

2.nounB2
Definition

The amount of money that a transport company charges to move goods from one place to another.

Example

The freight for shipping this container to Japan is around two thousand dollars.

collocation: freight for [destination]

Stefan was surprised how much the freight added to the order cost.

Common collocations
  • pay freight
  • cover freight
  • freight rates
  • freight charges
  • freight cost
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

the freight + for + something

freight + on + goods

Usage Note

Typically used with 'the' ('the freight') when referring to a specific charge. In business contexts, 'freight' alone can mean 'freight cost' by convention.

Common Mistakes

The freight is very expensive these days.' (unclear — goods or cost?)
Freight rates are very expensive these days.
specify whether you mean the cost or the goods.

freight — verb

freight — adverb

Word family

  • freighter
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Freight', 'cargo', 'goods', and 'shipment' all refer to items being transported, but they differ in scope. 'Freight' emphasises the commercial, bulk nature of the transport itself — it is the standard term for goods moved by train, truck, ship, or plane as part of a business operation. 'Cargo' is used mostly for goods carried by ship or aircraft and often implies a single vessel's load. 'Goods' is the broadest term and can refer to any products being bought, sold, or moved, regardless of scale. 'Shipment' focuses on one discrete batch sent at one time to one destination. For example: 'The freight train carried dozens of containers', 'The plane's cargo included medical supplies', 'The store received a shipment of new shoes', and 'The goods were loaded onto pallets before leaving the warehouse.'

freight ↗cargo ↗goods ↗shipment ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • by freight
  • as freight

Phrases

  • freight and handling
  • freight collect
  • freight prepaid
  • freight forward

Prepositions

Etymology

Middle DutchDutchEnglish

The word 'freight' entered English in the 1400s from Middle Dutch 'vrecht' or 'vracht', meaning the cost of hiring a ship to carry goods. It later broadened to refer to the goods themselves and then to any method of commercial transport by land, sea, or air.