Other forms: cargoes, cargos
Cargo is the goods a ship, plane or lorry carries. A cargo of timber, cargo ship, the cargo was damaged in transit.
It is usually uncountable and is countable when a particular load is meant: a cargo of grain. Freight means the same and is commoner for road and rail; cargo leans towards sea and air. Note cargo hold, the space it travels in, and cargo pants, which are named after the large pockets on military cargo uniforms. And cargo cult is an anthropological term that has escaped into general use to mean copying the outward form of something without understanding it.
1nouncargoThe goods carried by a ship, plane or lorry.
“The cargo was worth more than the vessel.”
synonyms: freight, load, consignment
cargo is goods being transported.
Also accepted in games: freight
Spanish cargo meant a load or burden, from Latin carricare, to load a wagon — the same root as charge, which is also something loaded onto you, and carry. A cargo and a charge are the same word by two routes.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱers-
Latin
carricō
Spanish
cargo — load, burden
English, today
cargo
Built from
Spanish cargo (“load, burden”), from cargar (“to load”), from Latin carricō. a doublet of charge and carga. Displaced native Old English fearm.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA