vector

English[edit]

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WOTD – 3 June 2006

Wikipedia has an article on:

Vector

Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From Latin vector (“carrier, transporter”), from vehō (“I carry, I transport, I bear”).

The "person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme" sense derives from the disease sense.

Pronunciation[edit]

Hyphenation: vec‧tor
(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛktə/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛktɚ/
Audio (US)
(file)
Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)

Noun[edit]

vector (plural vectors)

(mathematics) A directed quantity, one with both magnitude and direction; the signed difference between two points.
- 1914, The New Student's Reference Work:
  
  As examples of vector quantities may be mentioned the distance between any two given points, a velocity, a force, an acceleration, angular velocity, intensity of magnetization flux of heat.
(mathematics) An ordered tuple representing a directed quantity or the signed difference between two points.
(mathematics) Any member of a (generalized) vector space.

The vectors in ${\mathbb Q}[X]$ are the single-variable polynomials with rational coefficients: one is $x^{42}+\frac1{137}x-1$ .
(aviation) A chosen course or direction for motion, as of an aircraft.
(epidemiology) A carrier of a disease-causing agent.
(sociology) A person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme.
(psychology) A recurring psychosocial issue that stimulates growth and development in the personality.
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.
(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.
(programming) A one-dimensional array.

Usage notes[edit]

(programming): The term vector is used loosely when the indices are not (either positive or non-negative) integers.

Hypernyms[edit]

tensor

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Derived terms

Translations[edit]

directed quantity

Afrikaans: wektor
Catalan: vector m
Chinese:

Cantonese: 向量 (hoeng3 loeng6)

Mandarin: 向量 (zh) (xiàngliàng), 矢量 (zh) (shǐliàng)
Czech: vektor m
Danish: vektor c
Dutch: vector (nl) m
Esperanto: vektoro
Finnish: vektori (fi)
French: vecteur (fr) m
German: Vektor (de) m
Greek: διάνυσμα (el) n (diánysma) or άνυσμα (el) n (ánysma)
Hebrew: וקטור (he) m (vektór)
Hindi: सदिश (sadiś)
Hungarian: vektor (hu)
Icelandic: vigur
Ido: vektoro (io)
Italian: vettore (it) m
Japanese: ベクトル (ja) (bekutoru)

Korean: 벡터 (bekteo)
Latvian: vektors (sometimes vektōrs) m
Lithuanian: vektorius (lt) m
Malay: vektor
Marathi: सदिश (sadiś)
Mongolian: чиглэл (mn) (čiglel)
Norwegian: vektor (no) m
Persian: بردار (fa)
Portuguese: vector (pt) m
Russian: вектор (ru) m (v'éktor)
Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic: вектор m

Roman: vektor (sh) m
Slovene: vektor (sl) m
Spanish: vector (es) m
Swedish: vektor (sv) c
Tamil: திசையன் (ta) (ticaiyaṉ)
Turkish: vektör (tr), yöney (tr)

chosen course or direction for motion

Catalan: vector m
Dutch: koers (nl) f
Finnish: kurssi (fi)
Malay: vektor

Portuguese: vector (pt) m
Russian: курс (ru) m (kurs), направление (ru) n (napravl'énije)
Spanish: vector (es) m
Swedish: vektor (sv) c

carrier of a disease-causing agent

Czech: přenašeč m
Finnish: taudinkantaja, tartunnanlevittäjä
French: vecteur (fr)
Hungarian: bacilusgazda (hu)

Italian: vettore (it)
Malay: vektor
Maori: kaitītaritari
Portuguese: vetor (pt)
Russian: переносчик (ru) m (p'er'enósčik), носитель (ru) m (nósít'el')
Spanish: vector (es) m

person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme

way in which the eyes are drawn across the visual text

memory address containing the address of a code entry point

data structure consisting of a series of contiguous storage locations which are accessed via an integer offset

Finnish: vektori (fi)
Hebrew: וקטור (he) m (vektór)
Malay: vektor

Russian: вектор (ru) m (v'éktor), массив (ru) m (massív)
Swedish: vektor (sv) c

programming: one-dimensional array

Czech: vektor m
Hebrew: וקטור (he) m (vektór)
Latvian: vektors m

Malay: vektor
Russian: вектор (ru) m (v'éktor), массив (ru) m (massív)

Verb[edit]

vector (third-person singular simple present vectors, present participle vectoring, simple past and past participle vectored)

To set (particularly an aircraft) on a course toward a selected point.
- 1994, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies
  
  […] if love is vectored toward an object and Elinor's here flies toward Marianne, Marianne's in turn toward Willoughby.

Translations[edit]

to set (particularly an aircraft) on a course toward a selected point

Finnish: asettaa kurssi

References[edit]

The New Oxford Dictionary of English

Anagrams[edit]

covert