agent

Syllables: a·gent/ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒənt/

agent noun: one who exerts power, or has the power to act.

Noun

agent (plural agents)

One who exerts power, or has the power to act.
- Seeing we are so wonderfully endowed with priceless gifts by our Heavenly Father, will he not require usury at our hands? He will. But he has made us agents to ourselves, which makes us responsible for the way in which we use the talents he has given us, for the manner we expend the gold and...1862, Brigham Young, “Call for Teams to Go to the Frontiers, etc.”, in Journal of Discourses, volume 9
One who acts for, or in the place of, another (the principal), by that person's authority; someone entrusted to act on behalf of or in behalf of another, such as to transact business for them.
- He worked as an agent for the government.
- I see in him [Moby Dick] outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 36, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
A person who looks for work for another person and brokers a deal between the hiree and hirer.
- Ronald Koeman has agreed a deal with Everton to become their new manager, his agent has reportedly told Dutch media. The agent Rob Jansen said, according to the popular Voetbal International website, that it was now down to Southampton and Everton to agree a compensation package for the Dutchman...2016 June 4, Press Association, “Ronald Koeman’s agent says Dutchman has agreed terms with Everton”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2021
Synonyms:

manager, representative, rep
Someone who works for an intelligence agency: whether an officer or employee thereof or anyone else who agrees to help their efforts (for ideology, for money, as blackmailee, or otherwise).
- @Gary, are you a PAP agent? ... =) trying to incite rebellion and revolution on this site so that the govt will have an excuse to take down this site?Paragraph 4, Public Prosecutor v Yue Mun Yew Gary [2012] SGHC 188
An active power or cause or substance; something (e.g. biological, chemical, thermal, etc.) that has the power to produce an effect.
- So far seems to be the work of chemistry alone; at least we have no right to conclude that any other agent interferes; since hay, when it happens to imbibe moisture, exhibits nearly the same processes."1807, James Edward Smith, chapter 11, in An introduction to physiological and systematical botany
- Agents are means-rational insofar as they effectively pursue the goals they currently have—but means-rationality (even under a narrow-scope interpretation) does not prohibit agents from changing their goals or dropping them entirely.2025 June 13, Rhys Southan, Helena Ward, Jen Semler, “A timing problem for instrumental convergence”, in Philosophical Studies, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC
In the client-server model, the part of the system that performs information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or server. Especially in the phrase “intelligent agent” it implies some kind of autonomous process which can communicate with other agents to perform some collective task on behalf of one or more humans.
The participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation, e.g. "the boy" in the sentences "The boy kicked the ball" and "The ball was kicked by the boy".
- Near-synonym: doer
- A verb is typically described as active when its subject is the agent or actor. By contrast, a verb is said to be passive when the subject does not perform the action, but is the patient, target, or undergoer of the action.2009, Tarsee Li, The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel: An Explanation in the Context of Grammaticalization, page 58
Synonyms:

doer

Antonyms:

patient
A cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.
- Nevada casinos are fleeced out of millions of dollars yearly by agents (cheats acting as players) in collusion with crooked Black Jack dealers and pit bosses.1978, John Scarne, Scarne's guide to casino gambling, page 108
(US) A law enforcement officer tasked with enforcing a specific field of law.
- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officers are just simply referred to as "ATF agents".
- In the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, ICE agents arrested Walter Valladares, a 53-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, according to family members who spoke with CNN.2025 January 26, Priscilla Alvarez, Rosa Flores, “Trump administration launches nationwide immigration enforcement blitz”, in CNN, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2025
(US, capitalized, usually) A respectful term of address for an agent, especially a law enforcement agent.
- Steve Haines (Robert Bogue): Agent Sanchez! Apprehend these suspects!2013, Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto V, scene: Standoff between Michael de Santa and Steve Haines, level/area: The Wrap Up

Proper noun capitalized: Agent

Agent (plural Agents)

A surname.

agent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

agent in Hindi

someone who works for an intelligence agency: गुप्तचर guptacar

agent in Tamil

முகவர், பதிலாள், சிக்கல் தீர்வாளர், வேதிசெயல்பாட்டை செய்யும் வேதிப்பொருள், இயக்கி, செயல் முதல்வர்

agent in Urdu

agent: ایجنٹ ejaṇṭ
agent, stooge, pawn: مہرہ muhra

agent in Bengali

দালাল, নিযুক্তক, এজেণ্ট, শক্তি, কর্তা, কার্যকারী

More languagesFewer languages

agent in Telugu: వకీలు vakīlu
agent in Malayalam: ആൾ āḷ
agent in Kannada: ಮಾರಾಳು, ಮುತಾಲಿಕ, ದೂಸರು
agent in Punjabi: ਮੁਖ਼ਤਿਆਰ muxtiāra
agent in Gujarati: એજન્ટ, એજન્ટઃ
agent in Odia: କର୍ତ୍ତା karttā
agent in Nepali: एजेन्ट, अभिकर्ता, अभिकर्त्ता
agent in Tagalog: kinagawa, ahente, kinabisa
agent in Arabic: فَاعِل fāʕil
agent in Malay: agen
agent in Indonesian: agen
agent in Thai: ตัวแทน dtuua-tɛɛn
agent in Vietnamese: người đại lý

Examples of agent in a sentence

Having a good buyer’s agent also means having someone who is knowledgeable about the local real estate market and who has the skills and competence to negotiate with the seller’s agent on your behalf.2024 April 22, Jeanne Sahadi, “What a buyer’s agent will do for you when you’re looking for a new home”, in CNN Business, archived from the...
Ronald Koeman has agreed a deal with Everton to become their new manager, his agent has reportedly told Dutch media.2016 June 4, Press Association, “Ronald Koeman’s agent says Dutchman has agreed terms with Everton”, in The Guardian, archived from the...

All 40 example sentences with agent

Synonyms of agent

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of agent

Forms of agent

Noun
plural	agents
Proper noun
plural	Agents

Plural of agent: agents

Origin of agent

From Latin agēns, present active participle of agere (“to drive, lead, conduct, manage, perform, do”).

Occupational surname, from agent.

Words formed from agent

Phrases with agent

43 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about agent

What does agent mean?: Agent means one who exerts power, or has the power to act.
What is agent in Hindi?: Agent in Hindi is गुप्तचर (guptacar). See Agent meaning in Hindi.
How do you use agent in a sentence?: Having a good buyer’s agent also means having someone who is knowledgeable about the local real estate market and who has the skills and competence to negotiate with the seller’s agent on your behalf.
What part of speech is agent?: Agent can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce agent?: Agent is pronounced /ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒənt/.
What is the plural of agent?: The plural of agent is agents.

Words near agent in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “agent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/agent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.