# freight

> English word · Noun · IPA /fɹeɪt/ · frequency rank #7,230

## Definitions
1. The transportation of goods (originally by water; now also (chiefly US) by land); also, the hiring of a vehicle or vessel for such transportation.
2. Goods or items in transport; cargo, luggage.
3. Payment for transportation.
4. A burden, a load.
5. Cultural or emotional associations.
6. Ellipsis of freight train.

## Etymology
From Late Middle English freight, freght, freyght [and other forms], a variant of fraught, fraght (“transport of goods or people, usually by water; transportation fee; transportation facilities; cargo or passengers of a ship; (figuratively) burden; ballast of a ship; goods; a charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, and Middle Low German vrecht (“cargo, freight; transportation fee”), from Old Saxon frāht, frēht, from Proto-West Germanic *fra- (from Proto-Germanic *fra- (prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’)) + *aihti (from Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possessions, property”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)).
The English word can be analysed as for- + aught, and is a doublet of fraught.
Cognates
* French fret (“cargo, freight; transportation fees; rental of a ship”)
* Old English ǣht (“livestock; possession, property; power”)
* Old High German frēht (“earnings”)
* Portuguese frete (“cargo, freight; transportation fees”)
* Spanish flete (“cargo, freight; charter (hire of a vehicle for transporting cargo)”)
* Swedish frakt c (“cargo, freight; transportation fees”)

## Easily confused with
- **fright** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freight-vs-fright)
- **freighter** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freight-vs-freighter)
- **fight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fight-vs-freight)
- **flight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flight-vs-freight)
- **fraught** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fraught-vs-freight)
- **foresight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/foresight-vs-freight)
- **firefight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/firefight-vs-freight)

## Common misspellings (11)
`feright`, `ffreight`, `fregiht`, `freigght`, `freighht`, `freightt`, `freigth`, `freihgt`, `frieght`, `frreight`, `rfeight`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/freight