Payload
//ˈpeɪloʊd// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 That part of a cargo that produces revenue.
- 2 goods carried by a large vehicle wordnet
- 3 The total weight of passengers, crew, equipment, and cargo carried by an aircraft or spacecraft.
- 4 the front part of a guided missile or rocket or torpedo that carries the nuclear or explosive charge or the chemical or biological agents wordnet
- 5 That part of a rocket, missile, propelled stinger, or torpedo that is not concerned with propulsion or guidance, such as a warhead or satellite.
"1990, Dave Mustaine, "Rust in Peace... Polaris", Megadeth, Rust in Peace. I spread disease like a dog / Discharge my payload a mile high / Rotten egg air of death wrestles your nostrils"
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- 6 The functional part of a computer virus or another type of malware program, rather than the part that spreads it.
- 7 The actual data in a data stream.
Example
More examples"On December 12, 1949, the last V-2 monkey flight was launched at White Sands. Albert IV, a rhesus monkey attached to monitoring instruments, was the payload. It was a successful flight, with no ill effects on the monkey until impact, when it died."
Etymology
From pay + load. From the early 20th century.
Related phrases
More for "payload"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.