VECTOR


Meaning of VECTOR in English

I. ˈvek-tər noun

Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, carrier, from vehere to carry — more at way

Date: 1846

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 a

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

• vector adjective

• vec·to·ri·al vek-ˈtȯr-ē-əl adjective

• vec·to·ri·al·ly -ə-lē adverb

II. transitive verb

( vec·tored ; vec·tor·ing -t(ə-)riŋ)

Date: 1941

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

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate English vocabulary.      Энциклопедический словарь английского языка Merriam Webster.