Freight refers to goods being transported in bulk from one place to another, especially by ship, train, or truck. When stores need to stock their shelves with products made far away, those items travel as freight. A freight train might haul coal from a mine to a power plant, or carry grain from farms to cities. Cargo ships transport freight across oceans in massive metal containers stacked like building blocks.

The word also means the cost of transporting these goods. If a toy company ships products from a factory in another country, they pay freight charges based on the weight and distance traveled. When you hear someone say the freight was expensive, they're talking about how much it cost to move those goods.

Freight is the engine of modern commerce. Nearly everything you see in stores, from bananas to bicycles to books, traveled as freight to get there. The freight industry includes truck drivers, ship captains, train engineers, and warehouse workers who keep goods flowing across continents. Next time you see a long freight train rumbling past or a huge truck on the highway, you're watching the global economy in motion, delivering the things people need from where they're made to where they're used.