shipment

American

[ship-muhnt] / ˈʃɪp mənt /

noun

an act or instance of shipping freight or cargo.
a quantity of freight or cargo shipped at one time.
something that is shipped.

Synonyms:

consignment

shipment British

/ ˈʃɪpmənt /

noun

1. goods shipped together as part of the same lot
  
  a shipment of grain
2. ( as modifier )
  
  a shipment schedule
the act of shipping cargo

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See freight.

Other Word Forms

misshipment noun
overshipment noun
preshipment noun
supershipment noun

Etymology

Origin of shipment

First recorded in 1790–1800; ship ¹ + -ment

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For an e-commerce shipment weighing 2 pounds, the fuel surcharges amount to about $2 out of an average $9.50 total shipping cost, according to ShipMatrix.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

The company also continues to see gains in weight per shipment, which is “often an early indicator of improving underlying demand, particularly from industrial customers,” he says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

The shipment, first reported by the Financial Times, is due to arrive on Thursday or Friday.

From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026

The last shipment of jet fuel in transit from the Middle East to the UK is due to arrive this week, according to data firm Vortexa.

From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026

Rosaleen was in the honey house washing a new shipment of mason jars, a job that belonged to me, but she’d volunteered for it, seeing how badly I needed to write everything out.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023