| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| vector |
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| SYLLABICATION: | vec·tor |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  v k t r |
| NOUN: | 1. Mathematics a. A quantity, such as velocity, completely specified by a magnitude and a direction. b. A one-dimensional array. c. An element of a vector space. 2. Pathology An organism, such as a mosquito or tick, that carries disease-causing microorganisms from one host to another. 3. Genetics A bacteriophage, plasmid, or other agent that transfers genetic material from one cell to another. 4. A force or influence. 5. A course or direction, as of an airplane. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: vec·tored, vec·tor·ing, vec·tors
To guide (a pilot or aircraft, for example) by means of radio communication according to vectors. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin, carrier, from vehere, vect-, to carry. See wegh- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | vec·tori·al (vk-tôr -l, -t r-) —ADJECTIVE
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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