carrier

[ kar-ee-er ]

/ ˈkær i ər /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for: carrier / carriers on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person or thing that carries.

an employee of the post office who carries mail.

a person who delivers newspapers, magazines, etc., on a particular route.

Transportation.

an individual or company, as a railroad or steamship line, engaged in transporting passengers or goods for profit.
common carrier.

Insurance. a company that acts or functions as an underwriter or insurer.

a frame, usually of metal, attached to a vehicle for carrying skis, luggage, etc., as on top of an automobile or station wagon; rack.

aircraft carrier.

Immunology. an individual harboring specific pathogenic organisms who, though often immune to the agent harbored, may transmit the disease to others.

Genetics.

an individual possessing an unexpressed, recessive trait.
the bearer of a defective gene.

Also called carrier wave .Radio. the wave whose amplitude, frequency, or phase is to be varied or modulated to transmit a signal.

Machinery. a mechanism by which something is carried or moved.

Chemistry. a catalytic agent that brings about a transfer of an element or group of atoms from one compound to another.

Also called charge carrier. Physics. any of the mobile electrons or holes in a metal or semiconductor that enable it to conduct electrical charge.

Physical Chemistry. a usually inactive substance that acts as a vehicle for an active substance.

carrier pigeon.

Painting. base¹ (def. 16b).

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of carrier

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at carry, -er¹

OTHER WORDS FROM carrier

in·ter·car·ri·er, nounnon·car·ri·er, nounsu·per·car·ri·er, noun

Words nearby carrier

carrick bitt, Carrickfergus, Carrie, carried away, carried interest, carrier, carrier bag, Carrière, carrier-free, carrier pigeon, carrier wave

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use carrier in a sentence

The announcement comes as the carrier successfully completed a test with Corning to deploy a private 5G network inside a laboratory.
Verizon plans to offer indoor 5G networks by year-end|Aaron Pressman|September 16, 2020|Fortune
Though Verizon is the largest wireless carrier overall, with 116 million regular monthly subscribers, it has only 4 million prepaid customers.
Verizon is buying TracFone Wireless for $6.25 billion|radmarya|September 14, 2020|Fortune
That would have meant widespread testing to identify those who had caught the virus, quarantining and tracing the contacts of both symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers who could spread the disease to the most vulnerable.
America Is About to Lose Its 200,000th Life to Coronavirus. How Many More Have to Die?|by Stephen Engelberg|September 14, 2020|ProPublica
In more than a half-dozen cases, the carriers persuaded a judge to throw out the lawsuit, in part because the court agreed that a property insurance policy can’t be invoked if there is no property damage.
Got interruption insurance? These companies found it’s useless in the age of COVID-19|Bernhard Warner|September 12, 2020|Fortune

Your lender will need the name and contact information of your insurance carrier before completing your loan.
Determining your insurance needs|Valerie Blake|September 12, 2020|Washington Blade
The vaccine is delivered through a “carrier virus” that causes a common cold in chimpanzees but does not affect humans.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The airplane was owned by an Indonesian budget carrier, Lion Air.
Who Will Get AsiaAir 8501’s Black Boxes?|Clive Irving|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Riffing off the slogan “Now Everyone Can Fly,” the carrier offered no-frills flights that were both cheap and plentiful.
The Presumed Crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Is Nothing Like MH370|Lennox Samuels|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
AirAsia, on the other hand, is a relatively new carrier, an upstart in the tradition of Southwest Airlines in the United States.
The Presumed Crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Is Nothing Like MH370|Lennox Samuels|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The NYPD remained his ultimate goal as he went to work as a carrier for Airborne Express/DHL and then as a school safety officer.
In The Shadow of Murdered Cops|Michael Daly|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She repeated the brief phrases, as well as she could recall them, to a Eurasian whom she found acting as a water-carrier.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
And the same goes for any other common carrier—the railroads, bus service, and airlines.
Hooded Detective, Volume III No. 2, January, 1942|Various
Louis the Goon Engel was a mere walk-on in the piece, a spear-carrier doomed to death.
Hooded Detective, Volume III No. 2, January, 1942|Various
Instead of being a destroyer of merchandise, this new craft was an unarmed carrier of merchandise.
The Wonder Book of Knowledge|Various
But it's all right now—they'll throw the letters into the mail-carrier's bag—there'll be many of them—this is general letter day.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist|Alexander Berkman

British Dictionary definitions for carrier (1 of 2)

carrier

/ (ˈkærɪə) /

noun

a person, thing, or organization employed to carry goods, passengers, etc

a mechanism by which something is carried or moved, such as a device for transmitting rotation from the faceplate of a lathe to the workpiece

pathol another name for vector (def. 3)

pathol a person or animal that, without having any symptoms of a disease, is capable of transmitting it to others

Also called: charge carrier physics an electron, ion, or hole that carries the charge in a conductor or semiconductor

short for carrier wave

chem

the inert solid on which a dyestuff is adsorbed in forming a lake
a substance, such as kieselguhr or asbestos, used to support a catalyst
an inactive substance containing a radioisotope used in radioactive tracing
an inert gas used to transport the sample through a gas-chromatography column
a catalyst that effects the transfer of an atom or group from one molecule to another

See aircraft carrier

a breed of domestic fancy pigeon having a large walnut-shaped wattle over the beak; a distinct variety of pigeon from the homing or carrier pigeonSee also carrier pigeon

a US name for roof rack

British Dictionary definitions for carrier (2 of 2)

Carrier

/ (ˈkærɪə) /

noun

a member of an Athapaskan Native North American people of British Columbia

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for carrier

carrier

[ kăr′ē-ər ]

A person, animal, or plant that serves as a host for a pathogen and can transmit it to others, but is immune to it. Mosquitoes are carriers of malaria.

An organism that carries a gene for a trait but does not show the trait itself. Carriers can produce offspring that express the trait by mating with another carrier of the same gene. See more at recessive.

carrier

Origin of carrier

OTHER WORDS FROM carrier

Words nearby carrier

Words related to carrier

How to use carrier in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for carrier (1 of 2)

British Dictionary definitions for carrier (2 of 2)

Scientific definitions for carrier