VECTOR

I. noun see: way Date: 1846 1. 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, a course or compass direction especially of an airplane, 2. an organism (as an insect) that transmits a pathogen, pollinator a, 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, ~ adjective ~ial adjective ~ially adverb II. transitive verb (~ed; ~ing) Date: 1941 to guide (as an airplane, its pilot, or a missile) in flight by means of a radioed ~, to change the direction of (the thrust of a jet engine) for steering