Skip to main content

Carry vs Bear vs Convey vs Transport vs Transmit

Carry, bear, convey, transport, transmit are comparable when they mean to be or to serve as the agent or the means whereby something or someone is moved from one place to another.

Carry often implies the use of a cart or carriage or more recently of a train, ship, automobile, or airplane, but it may imply a personal agent or a beast of burden or some natural or artificial passage (as an artery or a pipe).

Bear stresses the support of the weight of whatever is being moved; in its extended senses, even though actual weight may not be implied, bear is preferred to carry when effort is suggested or the importance or the significance of what is carried is to be connoted.

Convey is more often used than carry of things that move continuously or in the mass or that pass through natural or artificial channels or mediums.

Transport is used in place of carry or convey when the stress is on the movement of persons or goods especially in numbers or bulk and typically over a considerable distance and by a professional carrier (as a railway or steamship line).

Transmit emphasizes the causative power in an agent or instrument; it implies either an actual sending by some means of conveyance or transportation or the power or the property of permitting passage through or from one place to another.