agent

American  

[ey-juhnt] / ˈeɪ dʒənt /

noun

1. a person or business authorized to act on another's behalf.

   Our agent in Hong Kong will ship the merchandise.

   A best-selling author needs a good agent.

   Synonyms:

   deputy, representative

2. a person or thing that acts or has the power to act.

3. a natural force or object producing or used for obtaining specific results.

   Many insects are agents of fertilization.

   Synonyms:

   means

4. an active cause; an efficient cause.

5. a person who works for or manages an agency.

6. a person who acts in an official capacity for a government or private agency as a guard, detective, or spy.

   an FBI agent;

   the secret agents of a foreign power.

7. a person responsible for a particular action.

   Who was the agent of this deed?

8. Grammar. a form or construction, usually a noun or noun phrase, denoting an animate being that performs or causes the action expressed by the verb, as the police in The car was found by the police.

9. Indian agent.

10. a representative of a business firm, especially a traveling salesperson; canvasser; solicitor.

11. Chemistry. a substance that causes a reaction.

12. Pharmacology. a drug or chemical capable of eliciting a biological response.

13. Pathology. any microorganism capable of causing disease.

14. British. a campaign manager; an election agent.

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adjective

1. acting; exerting power (patient ).

verb (used with object)

1. to represent (a person or thing) as an agent; act as an agent for: Who agented that deal?

   to agent a manuscript;

   Who agented that deal?

agent British  

/ ˈeɪdʒənt, eɪˈdʒɛnʃəl /

noun

1. a person who acts on behalf of another person, group, business, government, etc; representative

2. a person or thing that acts or has the power to act

3. a phenomenon, substance, or organism that exerts some force or effect

   a chemical agent

4. the means by which something occurs or is achieved; instrument

   wind is an agent of plant pollination

5. a person representing a business concern, esp a travelling salesman

6. short for estate agent

7. short for secret agent

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agent Scientific  

/ ā′jənt /

1. A substance that can bring about a chemical reaction or a biological effect.

2. Compare reagent

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Other Word Forms

• agential adjective
• counteragent noun
• interagent noun
• superagent noun
• underagent noun

Etymology

Origin of agent

First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin agent-, stem of agēns “doing,” present participle of agere “to do, drive”

Example Sentences

In my experience, once you get past the now obligatory bot, getting in touch with an agent was quite fast — under five minutes.

From Salon

Anthropic is racing to contain the fallout after accidentally exposing the underlying instructions it uses to direct Claude Code, the popular artificial-intelligence agent app that has won the company an edge with developers and businesses.

From The Wall Street Journal

Nearly 7 in 10 respondents said they want state and local authorities to intervene when they witness unlawful detentions or excessive use of force by federal immigration agents.

From Los Angeles Times

Some of the cases related to serving as an unregistered foreign agent, a charge Bondi ordered prosecutors to stop pursuing unless they involved “conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”

From Salon

He noted that last year saw a major inflection in agentic AI coding, with many developers now managing a team of agents to write code.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• assistant
• broker
• commissioner
• deputy
• handler
• lawyer
• minister
• officer
• operative
• operator
• promoter
• representative
• worker