In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships or carriers that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships.

The term break bulk is derived from the phrase breaking bulk — the extraction of a portion of the cargo of a ship or the beginning of the unloading process from the ship's holds.

These goods may be in shipping containers (bags, boxes, crates, drums, barrels). Unit loads of items secured to a pallet or skid are also used.

A break-in-bulk point is a place where goods are transferred from one mode of transport to another, for example the docks where goods transfer from ship to truck.

Break bulk was the most common form of cargo for most of the history of shipping.