carrier
Pronunciation: /ˈkarɪə/
noun
- 1a person or thing that carries, holds, or conveys something: water carriers
- British a carrier bag: a plastic carrier
- 2a person or company that undertakes the professional conveyance of goods or people: the instruments can be sent by carrier
- a vessel or vehicle for transporting goods in bulk: the largest timber carrier ever to dock at Sharpness
- an aircraft carrier: aircraft from the carrier Illustrious attacked the Italian fleet
- a company that provides facilities for conveying telecommunications messages: Japan’s biggest international telecoms carrier is Singapore Telecom
- 3a person or animal that transmits a disease-causing organism to others, especially without suffering from it themselves: the badger is a carrier of bovine tuberculosis
- an individual that possesses a particular gene, especially as a single copy whose effect is masked by a dominant allele, so that the associated characteristic (such as a hereditary disease) is not displayed but may be passed to offspring: the husband and wife may both be carriers of the same recessive gene, with a 25% chance of a diseased child
- 4a substance used to support or convey another substance such as a pigment, catalyst, or radioactive material.
- Physicsshort for charge carrier.
- Biochemistry a molecule that transfers a specified molecule or ion within the body, especially across a cell membrane.