An organism (as an insect) that transmits disease, a pathogen, or an organism that transmits genes, a pollinator.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
vector (noun)1.
a) a quantity that has magnitude and direction and that is commonly represented by a directed line segment whose length represents the magnitude and whose orientation in space represents the direction , broadly an element of a vector space
b) a course or compass direction especially of an airplane
2.
a) an organism (as an insect) that transmits a pathogen
b) - pollinator
3.
an agent (as a plasmid or virus) that contains or carries modified genetic material (as recombinant DNA) and can be used to introduce exogenous genes into the genome of an organism
transitive verb
1.
to guide (as an airplane, its pilot, or a missile) in flight by means of a radioed vector
2.
to change the direction of (the thrust of a jet engine) for steering
Vector (Wikipedia)
Vector most often refers to:
- Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
- Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
Vector may also refer to:
Vector (Wiktionary)
English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin vector (“carrier, transporter”), from vehō (“to carry, transport, bear”), also ultimately the root of English vehicle.
The “person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme” sense derives from the disease sense.
The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: vec‧tor
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈvɛktə/
- (US) enPR: vĕk'tər, IPA(key): /ˈvɛktɚ/
- Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)
Bearer, Messenger, Conveyor, Transporter, Channel