agent — English Dictionary

agent
Pronunciations (4)
  • /ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒənt/
  • [ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒənt]
  • [ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒn̩t]
  • ˈeɪ.dʒənt

Noun

  1. One who exerts power, or has the power to act.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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 silver, the wheat and fine flour, the cattle upon a thousand hills, and the wine and oil, for they all belong to Him

  2. 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.

    Examples

    He worked as an agent for the government.

    More examples (2)

    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.

    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.

  3. A person who looks for work for another person and brokers a deal between the hiree and hirer.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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, who has a year remaining on his contract at St Mary’s.

  4. 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).

    Examples

    @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?

  5. An active power or cause or substance; something (e.g. biological, chemical, thermal, etc.) that has the power to produce an effect.

    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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."

    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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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".

    Synonyms
    Antonyms
    Examples

    Near-synonym: doer

    More examples (1)

    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.

  8. A cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.

    Examples

    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.

  9. A law enforcement officer tasked with enforcing a specific field of law.

    Usage
    • US usage
    Examples

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officers are just simply referred to as "ATF agents".

    More examples (1)

    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.

  10. A respectful term of address for an agent, especially a law enforcement agent.

    Usage
    • US usage
    • capitalized
    • usually
    Examples

    Steve Haines (Robert Bogue): Agent Sanchez! Apprehend these suspects!

Noun

  1. an active and efficient cause; capable of producing a certain effect

    Examples

    their research uncovered new disease agents

  2. a representative who acts on behalf of other persons or organizations

    Broader terms
  3. a substance that exerts some force or effect

  4. a businessman who buys or sells for another in exchange for a commission

    Synonyms
  5. any agent or representative of a federal agency or bureau

    Broader terms
  6. the semantic role of the animate entity that instigates or causes the happening denoted by the verb in the clause

Word forms
agents

Code Formatters

Format and beautify Java, Python, JavaScript, JSON, HTML and more; adjust indentation, spacing and line breaks.

More tools

Audio Editing & Effects

Trim, join or split recordings, remove silence or noise, and adjust volume, speed, pitch or channels.

More tools

Spreadsheet Tools

Open and edit CSV or Excel sheets, format tabular text, and convert CSV to Excel or SQL.

More tools

Markdown Tools

Write and preview Markdown, render Mermaid diagrams, and convert Markdown, HTML and tables between formats.

Text Tools

Compare passages, count words and keywords, sort or replace lines, and view DOCX text.

Dictionaries

Look up Chinese meanings, synonyms and antonyms, or find IPA pronunciations in multiple languages.

Audio Conversion & Playback

Convert between MP3, WAV, FLAC and more, play audio or raw PCM, and inspect or edit audio metadata.

JSON & Data Tools

Inspect, compare and validate JSON; test JSONPath expressions, or convert data to CSV, YAML and XML.

More tools

Speech Tools

Transcribe audio to text, generate speech from text, or record your voice in the browser.

Video Tools

Convert and compress video, trim or join clips, resize frames, and extract audio.

More tools

Video Playback & Recording

Play local or streaming video, record your screen or camera, and use your camera as an online mirror.

PDF Tools

Compress or merge PDFs, split and rearrange pages, convert pages to images, and view or compare documents.

More tools

Image Tools

Convert image formats, resize or crop photos, compress files, compare pictures, and extract text with OCR.

More tools

Image Creation

Capture and beautify screenshots, turn text into images or GIFs, draw on a whiteboard, and create word clouds or favicons.

More tools

Subtitle Tools

Edit SRT or VTT captions with a video preview, shift timing, convert formats, and manage subtitle tracks.

More tools

Archive Tools

Open ZIP, 7Z, RAR or TAR files, extract selected contents, and create new archives with optional ZIP/7Z passwords.

Encoders | Decoders

Encode and decode Base64 or Base32, escape URLs, HTML and Unicode text, and inspect JWT contents.

More tools

Number Tools

Convert number bases and values between binary, decimal and hex; turn numbers into words or text into binary.

Calculators

Work out percentages and fractions, summarize statistics, and calculate grades, discounts or aspect ratios.

More tools

Time Tools

Show an online clock, run a countdown or stopwatch, and calculate dates, ages or time-zone differences.

More tools

Network Tools

Check your IP and IPv6 connection, inspect HTTP requests or HAR files, and calculate CIDR address ranges.

Unit Conversions

Convert length, weight, temperature, data storage and other units.

Color Tools

Convert HEX, RGB and HSL values, extract colors from an image, check contrast, or test your display with solid colors.

QR Codes & Barcodes

Generate and scan QR codes or barcodes, including QR codes for links and Wi-Fi networks.

Developer & Security Tools

Generate hashes, UUIDs and passwords, test regular expressions, create URL slugs and check file permissions.

More tools

Utility Tools

Check screen resolution and refresh rate, measure with a screen ruler, test keys, or read from a teleprompter.

More tools

Games

2048, Minesweeper, Sudoku, Gomoku, Tank Battle

More tools