vector ˈvek-tər noun and verb
1. noun: a straight line segment whose length is magnitude and whose orientation in space is direction
2. noun: any agent (person or animal or microorganism) that carries and transmits a disease
3. noun: a virus or other agent that is used to deliver DNA to a cell
4. noun: a variable quantity that can be resolved into components
5. verb: to guide or change direction for steering while in flight
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The word vector has appeared in 105 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Sept. 9 in “Sitting in Silence With 5,000 Fans: The New Sound of Japanese Sports” by Motoko Rich:
In normal times, Japanese fans are not only loud, they are also extremely orchestrated and utterly disciplined. Nonstop through a match, they sing, cheer, chant, bang drums and wave enormous team flags — a boisterous spectacle that often rivals the actual play on the field for entertainment value.
Now, most of those activities are banned for fear that people might be roused into a frenzy of shouting, with any spray becoming a vector for spreading the virus.
So when I attended a home match on a recent Sunday surrounded by nearly 4,600 fans of FC Tokyo, one of 18 teams in the top tier of the Japan Professional Football League, or J-League, the spectators were scrupulously quiet — except for an occasional crinkle of a food wrapper or a spontaneous burst of applause.
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