vector
Syllables: vec·torUK/ˈvɛktə//ˈvɛktɚ/
vector noun: a directed quantity, one with both magnitude and direction; the signed difference between two points.
Noun
vector (plural vectors)
- A directed quantity, one with both magnitude and direction; the signed difference between two points.
- Velocity is a vector defined by the speed of an object and its direction.
- 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.1914, The New Student's Reference Work
- Any member of a (generalized) vector space.
- The vectors in #123;#92;mathbbQ#125;#91;X#93; are the single-variable polynomials with rational coefficients: one is #92;textstylex#123;42#125;#43;#92;frac1#123;137#125;x-1.
- An ordered tuple, originally one representing a directed quantity, but by extension any one-dimensional matrix.
- Computers store many types of data as vectors for ease of processing.
- A row vector is a matrix whose M dimension is 1. In fact, a row vector is a matrix consisting of a single row, and a column vector a matrix consisting of a single column.2003 February 26, Julio Sanchez, Maria P. Canton, The PC Graphics Handbook, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 62
- A chosen course or direction for motion, as of an aircraft.
- I was told to fly out on a vector of 100 degrees to meet a strong plot of aircraft 30 miles from the coast.2017, Mark Chambers, Tony Holmes, Nakajima B5N ‘Kate’ and B6N ‘Jill’ Units, page 32
- A kind of dynamically resizable array.
- To create a vector of students in a class, you will want the vector to be large enough […]2004, Jesse Liberty, Bradley L. Jones, Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, page 694
- 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.
- A graphical representation using outlines; vector graphics.
- a vector image, vector graphics
- A DNA molecule used to carry genetic information from one organism into another.
- A person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme.
- These days, their primary job is to insist that Facebook is a fun place to share baby photos and sell old couches, not a vector for hate speech, misinformation, and violent extremist propaganda.2020 October 12, Andrew Marantz, “Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itself”, in The New Yorker
- A recurring psychosocial issue that stimulates growth and development in the personality.
- Forces, developments, phenomena, processes, systems, etc. which influence the trajectory of history (e.g. imperialism)
Verb
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.
- […] if love is vectored toward an object and Elinor's here flies toward Marianne, Marianne's in turn toward Willoughby.1994, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies
- To redirect to a vector, or code entry point.
vector meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
vector in Hindi
- directed quantity
- सदिश sadiś
- carrier of a disease-causing agent
- रोगवाहक rogvāhak
vector in Tamil
- directed quantity
- திசையன் ticaiyaṉ
vector in Marathi
- directed quantity
- सदिश sadiś
vector in Urdu
- خط حامل, سمتیہ
More languagesFewer languages
- vector in Malayalam
- സദിശം sadiśaṁ
- vector in Kannada
- ತೂಕಡೆ
- vector in Gujarati
- સદિશ sadiś
- vector in Tagalog
- tugano, bektor
- vector in Arabic
- مُتَّجِهٌ muttajihun, مُتَّجِهاتٌ muttajihātun, شُعاعٌ šuʕāʕun, أَشِعَّةٌ ʔašiʕʕatun
- vector in Malay
- vektor
- vector in Persian
- بردار
- vector in Thai
- เวกเตอร์ vék-dtə̂ə
- vector in Vietnamese
- đại lượng có hướng, đại lượng hữu hướng, hướng lượng, mảng một chiều
Examples of vector in a sentence
- Color is stored as a vector attribute (R, G, B).2011 March 8, Lee Lanier, Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 97:
- GPU cores are essentially vector-processing units, capable of applying the same instruction on a large collection of operands.2022 February 9, Gerassimos Barlas, Multicore and GPU Programming: An Integrated Approach, Morgan Kaufmann, →ISBN, page 398:
Forms of vector
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | vectors |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | vectors |
| present participle | vectoring |
| past participle | vectored |
| past | vectored |
Origin of vector
Learned borrowing from Latin vector (“carrier, transporter”), from vehō (“to carry, transport, bear”), also ultimately the root of English vehicle. The “person or entity that passes along an urban legend or other meme” sense derives from the disease sense. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.
Words formed from vector
- adenovector
- attack vector
- axial vector
- basis vector
- biovector
- bitvector
- bivector
- characteristic vector
- code vector
- covector
- direction vector
- distance vector
- four-vector
- intermediate vector boson
- isovector
- Killing vector field
- minivector
- multivector
- nanovector
- net magnetization vector
- normed vector space
- paravector
- Pauli vector
- phasor
- polarization vector
- pseudovector
- quadrivector
- radius vector
- real vector space
- retrovector
- revector
- shuttle vector
- statevector
- subvector
- supervector
- support vector machine
- topological vector space
- transvector
- trivector
- vectoral
- vector algebra
- vector-borne
- vector boson
- vector bundle
- vector calculus
- vectorcardiogram
- vectorcardiography
- vector clock
- vector field
- vector function
- vectorial
- vectorially
- vector image
- vectorisation
- vectorise
- vectorization
- vectorize
- vectorless
- vectorlike
- vectorpotential
Phrases with vector
- row vector
- vector sum
- unit vector
- vector sums
- vector verb
- wave vector
- word vector
- zero vector
- vector space
- vector verbs
- viral vector
- column vector
22 more phrasesFewer phrases
- latent vector
- proper vector
- vector bosons
- vector clocks
- vector fields
- vector images
- vector spaces
- Burgers vector
- vector bundles
- vector product
- position vector
- Poynting vector
- vector graphics
- vector products
- vector functions
- real vector spaces
- irrotational vector
- normed vector spaces
- Killing vector fields
- support vector machines
- topological vector spaces
- intermediate vector bosons
Words that rhyme with vector
Questions about vector
- What does vector mean?
- Vector means a directed quantity, one with both magnitude and direction; the signed difference between two points.
- What is vector in Hindi?
- Vector in Hindi is सदिश (sadiś), रोगवाहक (rogvāhak). See Vector meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use vector in a sentence?
- Color is stored as a vector attribute (R, G, B).
- What part of speech is vector?
- Vector can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce vector?
- Vector is pronounced /ˈvɛktə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of vector?
- The plural of vector is vectors.
Words near vector in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vector (page history and authors); vector (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); സദിശം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); vector (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); સદિશ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-vector.ogg, en-au-vector.ogg.
Cite this entry: “vector.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vector. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.