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payload

 - 3 dictionary results

pay⋅load

  [pey-lohd]
Use payload in a Sentence
–noun
1. the part of a cargo producing revenue or income, usually expressed in weight.
2. the number of paying passengers, as on an airplane.
3. Aerospace, Military.
a. the bomb load, warhead, cargo, or passengers of an aircraft, a rocket, missile, etc., for delivery at a target or destination.
b. the total complement of equipment carried by a spacecraft for the performance of a particular mission in space.
c. the explosive energy of the warhead of a missile or of the bomb load of an aircraft: a payload of 50 megatons.
Origin:
1925–30; pay 1 + load
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pay·load   (pā'lōd')   
n.  

  1. The revenue-producing part of a cargo.

    1. The total weight of passengers and cargo that an aircraft carries or can carry.

    2. The total weight of the instruments, crew, and life-support systems that a spacecraft carries or can carry.

    3. The passengers, crew, instruments, or equipment carried by an aircraft, spacecraft, or rocket.

  3. The explosive charge carried in the warhead of a missile.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

payload 
1930, from pay (n. or v.) + load (n.). Originally the part of an aircraft's load from which revenue is derived (passengers, cargo, mail); fig. sense of "bombs, etc. carried by a plane or missile" is from 1936.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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