Agencies

How to spell agencies

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce agencies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agencies mean?

1. nounBusinesses or government bodies that provide a particular service or act on behalf of others.

Agencies in a sentence

• Several recruitment agencies contacted her after the job fair.

• Government agencies were asked to cut their spending this year.

Where does agencies come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural of agency, which comes from the Latin verb agere, meaning 'to do, act, or drive'. From agere came the form agens (genitive agentis), describing one who acts, and the medieval Latin agentia captured the idea of acting or operating on someone's behalf. English adopted agency in the early 1600s to mean the active power of doing something, and it soon broadened to describe an office or organisation that conducts business for others. The same agere root drives a whole family of familiar words, including act, agent, agile, and agenda. When you make the plural, the spelling follows the standard English rule that a noun ending in consonant plus -y changes the y to -ies, which is the main thing writers need to remember here.

How the word is built

• ag- (from agere: to do, drive)
• -ent (agent suffix)
• -cy (noun of state)
• -ies (plural)