agent

plural agents

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

   1 more example

   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

   1862, Brigham Young, “Call for Teams to Go to the Frontiers, etc.”, in Journal of Discourses, volume 9

2. lawOne 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.

   2 more examples

   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

   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 original on 18 Jan 2025

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

   1 more example

   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.

   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

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).

   @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

5. 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

   1 more example

   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

6. computingIn 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.

   [Jesse] Genet uses five AI agents to manage her seven-child household on a ranch outside Los Angeles.

   2026 September 5, Valeriya Safronova, “AI enters the house: ‘It’s a total game-changer’”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6

7. grammarThe 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

   1 more example

   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

8. gamblingA 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

9. USA 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".

   2 more examples

   All federal agents are federal police officers but not all federal police officers are agents. For example, Drug Enforcement Administration agents are both agents and federal police officers while US Marshals are just federal police officers.

   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

10. UScapitalizedusuallyA 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

plural Agents

1. A surname.