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car·ri·er (kărē-ər)
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n.
1. One that transports or conveys: baggage carriers; a message carrier.
2. One, such as a person, business, or organization, that deals in the transport of passengers or goods.
3. A mechanism or device by which something is conveyed or conducted.
4. Medicine A person or animal that shows no symptoms of a disease but harbors the infectious agent of that disease and is capable of transmitting it to others.
5. Genetics An individual that carries one gene for a particular recessive trait. A carrier does not express the trait but, when mated with another carrier, can produce offspring that do.
6. Physics A boson, especially a gauge boson, that conveys a force or mediates an interaction between subatomic particles.
7. Electronics
a. A carrier wave.
b. A charge-carrying entity, especially an electron or a hole in a semiconductor.
8. An aircraft carrier.
9. An insurance or underwriting organization.
10. A telecommunications company.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.