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An early instance of the word fraught occurs in the 14th century poem Richard Coer de Lion, about England’s King Richard I. “The drowmound was so hevy fraught / That unethe myght it saylen aught” is about a large fast-sailing ship so heavily fraught—that is, loaded—that it can barely sail. The use is typical for the time; originally, something that was fraught was laden with freight. For centuries, fraught continued to be used in relation to loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened for situations that are heavy with tension, emotion, or some other weighty characteristic.
Examples of fraught in a Sentence
Mekishana Pierre, EW.com, 1 Aug. 2025
This leads to a delightfully fraught balance of risk and reward, forcing you to ride the edge of survivability in each wave.
—Kyle Orland, ArsTechnica, 1 Aug. 2025
The New York Times reported on July 27 that $934 million was pulled from a financially fraught program to revamp the U.S.'s aging nuclear missile stockpile to fix up the plane.
—Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today, 29 July 2025
That doesn’t mean the American Eagle campaign doesn’t come off as tasteless during an otherwise fraught time.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 28 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for fraught
Cite this Entry
“Fraught.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraught. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.
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