Difference between Carrier and Career

Key Difference: The word carrier basically means anyone or anything that carries. The word is derived from the verb, to carry. A career refers to what a person does for a living: his job, his profession, his occupation, his line of work, etc.

Carrier The words carrier and career are often confused as they look and sound similar. However, the two words are not even close to be similar. One of the words refers to a job or profession, whereas the other has numerous other meanings that have nothing to do with a job or profession. But which is which?

The word carrier basically means anyone or anything that carries. The word is derived from the verb, to carry. The word can also refer to a person or company that carries goods or people for payment. It can also refer to an object that is use to carry things from one place to another, such as a bag, a container, the carrier on a bicycle or car.

In addition to this, the word carrier can also refer to something that can transmit a disease to others. This means that it has the infection and can pass it to other, however, the thing or person does not suffer from it. For example: The mosquitoes are carriers of malaria and dengue.

However, ‘carrier’ has nothing to do with a job or profession; that is a career. A career refers to what a person does for a living: his job, his profession, his occupation, his line of work, etc. A career is a profession for which one trains and from which he earns a livelihood. Here, it can be used interchangeably with the word ‘occupation’. For example: doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. A career is commonly held for a long time, as opposed to just a job that can be for a short time.

Career A person can have a single career all his life, or he can change his career as many times as he wants. Recently there has been a trend in which many people are changing their careers, in order to pursue what makes them happy. Many people are even going back to school later in life to change their careers.

Additionally, the word ‘career’ can also refer to a quick or violent forward movement. This movement is usually at a high speed and is often uncontrollable. For example: The car careered off the road.

Comparison between Carrier and Career:

	Carrier	Career
Description	Carrier refers to anyone or anything that carries	Career refers to a job or profession that someone does for a long time
Definition (Merriam-Webster)	one that carries an individual or organization engaged in transporting passengers or goods for hire a transportation line carrying mail between post offices a postal employee who delivers or collects mail one that delivers newspapers an entity (as a hole or an electron) capable of carrying an electric charge a container for carrying a device or machine that carries a bearer and transmitter of a causative agent of an infectious disease; especially : one who carries the causative agent of a disease systemically but is asymptomatic or immune to it an individual (as one heterozygous for a recessive trait) having a specified gene that is not expressed or only weakly expressed in its phenotype	a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling speed in a course <ran at full career>
Related to	The verb ‘carry’	A job, professional career
Examples	I need a plastic carrier to hold my stuff. Can you send over the letter by a carrier? It is the largest timber carrier at the dock. The aircraft carrier will depart tomorrow. The chicken is a carrier for avian flu. The husband and wife may both be carriers of the same recessive gene.	He had a distinguished military career. The company has had a successful career. He is a career diplomat. She wants to pursue a career as a singer. The football star had a prospering career until the accident. The car careered across the road and into the wall.