The quoted Washington Naval Treaty passage defines a carrier as a war vessel over 10,000 tons standard displacement, designed exclusively to carry aircraft and able to launch and recover them. Its armament must also remain within the specified treaty limits. These restrictions prevent a navy from using its carrier allowance to build heavily armed super-cruisers. The lower displacement threshold nevertheless leaves room for an argument that a carrier below 10,000 tons falls outside that definition.
Notable Point · 3:56:56-3:58:57
Why Washington defined an aircraft carrier above 10,000 tons
The treaty's tonnage and armament clauses tried to stop navies disguising powerful cruisers as carriers.