[susan53]

The word shipment came up in a lesson today and I explained it as a delivery of goods. "Yes," said the student "but by sea, obviously?"

Offhand I wasn't sure. Do we use shipment more generally, or is it actually restricted to water transport?

[clivehawkins]

Without looking it up i'd say it was okay.
Otherwise, what about consignment?

The consignment arrived by train.

[susan53]

By pure chance, after writing the original post I went to the Amazon site to look at some books. And noted that they talk about stuff being shipped. But presumably they don't necessarily send it by boat - ???

Yes, I agree with Clive that consignment/consigned is an alternative. But shipped/shipment seems more usual - in fact I've just done a googlebattle and it's come out : shipment - 47.7 million; consignment 9.2 million. No contest!

[clivehawkins]

I'll take it on the chin like a man. :-)

[keith t]

A search at dictionary.com gives the following definitions for shipment, amongst others:

- goods carried by a large vehicle
- a load of goods sent by sea

And this for the verb "to ship"

- to put or take on board a ship or other means of transportation; to send or transport by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc.

So I think we can safely use "to ship" and "shipment" to refer to other means of transporation too!

[mesmark]

I'll chime in and say that I think it's standard to refer to sending goods through a variety of mediums as shipping or shipment.

Everything says 'shipping and handling' for listing additional charges when you buy an item.