Agent

How to spell agent

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce agent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agent mean?

1. nounA person who acts or conducts business on behalf of another.
2. nounA substance or force that produces a particular chemical or physical effect.

Agent in a sentence

• The actor's agent negotiated a new contract with the studio.

• Chlorine is a powerful cleaning agent used in many pools.

• We asked the estate agent to arrange a viewing of the flat.

• The lab tested whether the new agent could dissolve the residue.

Where does agent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin agens, the present participle of the verb agere, which literally meant 'to do, to drive, or to set in motion'. The form agentem (the accusative) gave the sense of 'one who acts or does', and English took it up in the late 1400s, at first in the broad sense of any person or thing that produces an effect. Over time the meaning branched: a person empowered to act on someone else's behalf (a business or theatrical agent) and, separately, any substance or force that brings about a change (a cleaning agent, a chemical agent). The same agere root drives a large family of English words, including 'act', 'agile', 'agenda', and 'agency', all of which carry the idea of doing or moving. Because the ending sounds like a soft unstressed 'ent', the only real spelling point is remembering it is -ent rather than -ant, fixed by its Latin participial origin in -ens.

How the word is built

• ag- (from Latin agere: to do, drive, act)
• -ent (suffix forming a noun for one who performs the action)