From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpayloadpay‧load /ˈpeɪləʊd $ -loʊd/ noun 1 [countable, uncountable]TTBB the amount of goods or passengers that can be carried by a vehicle, or the goods that a vehicle is carrying → cargopayload of The helicopter is designed to carry a payload of 2,640 pounds.2 [countable]PMW the amount of explosive that a missile can carry
Examples from the Corpus
payload• This is important because the balloon and payload could be damaged if the wind speed is above 10 knots.• The second approach is to use lymphocytes that home in on tumours as vehicles for delivering a biological payload to the tumour.• However the shuttle is purpose-built to lift payloads into Earth orbit in a reusable manner.• The shuttle's main payload will be a 37,300-pound satellite.• Plan of action: 1 Monitor payloads being achieved.• The gondola that contains the payload has been spotted from the air and is believed to be undamaged.• The payload of the military 109 is one ton, the civilian 109 is ¾ ton.From Longman Business Dictionarypayloadpay‧load /ˈpeɪləʊd-loʊd/ noun [countable]TRANSPORTCOMMERCE the amount of goods or passengers that are carried by a vehicle or aircraft, measured by their weight, and for which payment is receivedThe Federal Express freighters will carry agross payload of 187,500 pounds.