portadora

Portadora is the feminine form of portador and comes from the verb portar, meaning to carry or bear. In Portuguese, portadora is used to designate a person or thing that carries something, a meaning that spans several domains such as biology, engineering, telecommunications, and logistics. The exact sense depends on context.

In biology and medicine, a portadora is an organism that harbors a pathogen without showing symptoms, or an asymptomatic carrier. Such individuals can transmit infections to others, influencing public health strategies and disease control.

In electronics and telecommunications, portadora refers to the carrier signal in modulation processes. The carrier is the base waveform that is modulated by the information signal to convey data or voice.

In logistics and commerce, portadora can denote a carrier company or service that transports goods. The more common term in Portuguese for this idea is transportadora, though portadora may appear in formal or contractual language.

In sociolinguistics and disability studies, historical usage of "portadora de deficiência" described a person with a disability; contemporary practice generally favors person-first language, such as "pessoa com deficiência," to emphasize the individual rather than the condition.

In everyday language, portadora functions as a generic noun for someone who carries something (for example, portadora de malas) or for an object designed to carry contents (such as a portadora de energia, in contexts describing energy carriers).