agent
Pronunciation: /ˈeɪdʒ(ə)nt/
noun
- 1a person who acts on behalf of another, in particular:
- a person who manages business, financial, or contractual matters for an actor, performer, writer, etc..
- a person or company that provides a particular service, typically one that involves organizing transactions between two other parties: a travel agent
- a person who works secretly to obtain information for a government or other official body: a trained intelligence agent
- 2a person or thing that takes an active role or produces a specified effect: agents of environmental change bleaching agents
- Grammar the doer of an action, typically expressed as the subject of an active verb or in a by phrase with a passive verb.
- Computing an independently operating Internet program, typically one that performs background tasks such as information retrieval or processing on behalf of a user or other program.
Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense 'someone or something that produces an effect'): from Latin agent- 'doing', from agere