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agent

noun

Simple meaning

Someone who exerts power, or has the power to act.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ayjuhnt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈeɪdʒənt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

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

  2. law

    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.

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

  4. An active and efficient cause; capable of producing a certain effect

    “Their research uncovered new disease agents.”

  5. 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).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: 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.

Used this way, agent is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing
  • Business/professional

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Works

estate agent

Client

secret agent

Businessman

purchasing agent

Other combinations

special agenttravel agentfree agentreducing agentchange agent

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • agent banknounCompound term

    A bank named by a lending syndicate of several banks to protect their interests.

  • agent-in-placenounCompound term

    An operative serving as a penetration into an intelligence target.

  • agent orangenounCompound term

    A herbicide used in the Vietnam War to defoliate forest areas.

  • agent provocateurnounCompound term

    A secret agent who incites suspected persons to commit illegal acts.

  • actor's agentnounCompound term

    A business agent for an actor.

  • antipsychotic agentnounCompound term

    Tranquilizer used to treat psychotic conditions when a calming effect is desired.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.