Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A quantity, such as velocity, completely specified by a magnitude and a direction.
  • noun A one-dimensional array.
  • noun An element of a vector space.
  • noun An organism, such as a mosquito or tick, that carries disease-causing microorganisms from one host to another.
  • noun A bacteriophage, plasmid, or other agent that transfers genetic material from one cell to another.
  • noun A force or influence.
  • noun A course or direction, as of an airplane.
  • transitive verb To guide (a pilot or aircraft, for example) by means of radio communication according to vectors.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In quaternions, a quantity which, being added to any point of space, gives as the sum that point which is at a certain distance in a certain direction from the first.
  • noun Hence— A directive quantity; a quantity determined by two numbers giving its direction and a third giving its magnitude.
  • noun Same as radius vector. See radius.
  • Of the nature of or concerned with vectors.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as radius vector.
  • noun (Math.) A directed quantity, as a straight line, a force, or a velocity. Vectors are said to be equal when their directions are the same and their magnitudes equal. Cf. Scalar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mathematics A directed quantity, one with both magnitude and direction; the signed difference between two points.
  • noun mathematics An ordered tuple representing a directed quantity or the signed difference between two points.
  • noun mathematics Any member of a (generalized) vector space.
  • noun aviation A chosen course or direction for motion, as of an aircraft.
  • noun epidemiology A carrier of a disease-causing agent.
  • noun sociology A person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme.
  • noun psychology A recurring psychosocial issue that stimulates growth and development in the personality.
  • noun The way in which the eyes are drawn across the visual text. The trail that a book cover can encourage the eyes to follow from certain objects to others.
  • noun computing, operating systems A memory address containing the address of a code entry point, usually one which is part of a table and often one that is dereferenced and jumped to during the execution of an interrupt.
  • noun programming A one-dimensional array.
  • verb To set (particularly an aircraft) on a course toward a selected point.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a straight line segment whose length is magnitude and whose orientation in space is direction
  • noun (genetics) a virus or other agent that is used to deliver DNA to a cell
  • noun any agent (person or animal or microorganism) that carries and transmits a disease
  • noun a variable quantity that can be resolved into components

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, carrier, from vehere, vect-, to carry; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin vector ("carrier"), from vehō ("I carry, I bear").

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Examples

  • Strain DNY75 expressing either human HSF1 (+HSF1) or an empty vector (+vector) were seeded into microtiter wells and incubated in the presence of HSF1A or DMSO solvent for 4 d and then photographed.

    PLoS Biology: New Articles Daniel W. Neef et al. 2010

  • Vectronaut is a vector related blog made by Ivan, the name came from the mix of * vector* and * astronaut*, serving tutorials and inspiration .. and anything that (Ivan) _the young illustrator_ knows about vector art.

    Qwaider Planet 2010

  • The term vector-borne diseases is referred to in this slide set in its broad WHO definition, i.e. those diseases whose transmission vitally depends on primary and intermediate vertebrate and invertebrate hosts and animal reservoirs of pathogenic organisms.

    1. Target audience, objectives, scope and structure 1996

  • You must not only understand what you're building, but also how the program will evolve (what I call the vector of change [17]).

    The Gadgeteer 2010

  • It adds word stemming and a thesaurus on top of the term vector database to assist in keeping a search in context.

    Marketwire - Breaking News Releases 2010

  • In Mathematica 7 it has been dramatically improved, adding modern techniques in vector data visualization and new algorithms developed at Wolfram Research.

    Wolfram Blog : 2009 : January 2009

  • In Mathematica 7 it has been dramatically improved, adding modern techniques in vector data visualization and new algorithms developed at Wolfram Research.

    Wolfram Blog : Visualizing Weather Patterns in Mathematica 7 2009

  • With gene therapy, scientists try to correct the problem by delivering a normal gene to the body, using what is known as a vector to insert the gene into cells—usually a virus that is genetically altered to contain human DNA.

    Gene Therapy Used to Treat Hemophilia B Amy Docker Marcus 2011

  • The site launched earlier this year as wireless plan comparison service, but with personal debt at record highs and personal savings rates at record lows, the credit card vector is potentially even more important and useful tool.

    Sneak Peek Of BillShrink.com's New Credit Card Comparison Tool - The Consumerist 2008

  • Monday, I will remember that that the way to get over that overhang on the new white route is right hand up, left foot as high as possible, left hand across the body on a vector from the left foot, right hand across the left hand, and left hand out to the little pizza.

    You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. matociquala 2008

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