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
… rockets carrying … a payload of Starlink satellites. —
Rick Neale
Rick Neale Their objective was to size the airplane according to its intended payload. —Clive Irving
Clive Irving 2
: the weight of a payload
… the Bronco had a payload of 2000 pounds.—Darryl Young
Darryl YoungMaximum fuel load is 3,550 pounds, leaving a payload of just 360 pounds with full tanks.—J. Mac McClellan
J. Mac McClellan3
: 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
Alex Wellerstein
also
: something likened to such a payload
This vulnerability could be exploited to deploy a ransomware payload … —Carly Page
Carly Page 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
Beth Mole 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
Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 is progressing towards launch readiness, but the company's New Glenn rocket is currently grounded due to a mishap with its second stage during its most recent mission, which failed to deliver its payload to orbit.
—Josh Dinner, Space.com, 19 May 2026
Blue Origin was one of several companies to win NASA study contracts last year to look at novel ways of delivering scientific payloads to difficult-to-reach destinations.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 19 May 2026
Fast attack capability BlackSea designed Comet for missions that demand both speed and payload capacity.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 19 May 2026
Closer to home, Starship is designed to carry larger versions of the company's Starlink internet satellites and other payloads to Earth orbit.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 18 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for payload
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Josh Dinner, Space.com, 19 May 2026
Blue Origin was one of several companies to win NASA study contracts last year to look at novel ways of delivering scientific payloads to difficult-to-reach destinations.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 19 May 2026
Fast attack capability BlackSea designed Comet for missions that demand both speed and payload capacity.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 19 May 2026
Closer to home, Starship is designed to carry larger versions of the company's Starlink internet satellites and other payloads to Earth orbit.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 18 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for payload
Cite this Entry
“Payload.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/payload. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids 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
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