Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition of being in action; operation.
- n. The means or mode of acting; instrumentality.
- n. A business or service authorized to act for others: an employment agency.
- n. An administrative division of a government or international body.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being in action or of exerting power; action; operation; instrumentality.
- n. A mode of exerting power; a means of producing effects.
- n. The office of agent or factor; the business of an agent intrusted with the concerns of another: as, the principal pays the charges of agency.
- n. The place of business of an agent. In the United States, frequently used in the sense of an Indian agency, an office or settlement in or near the reservation of an Indian tribe, at which resides an Indian agent of the government, charged with the interests of the tribe and the care of the relations of the government to it: as, the Pawnee agency.
Wiktionary
- n. The faculty of acting or of exerting power; the state of being in action; action; instrumentality.
- n. agent
- n. The office of an agent, or factor.
- n. The relation between a principal and his agent.
- n. Business of one entrusted with the concerns of another.
- n. The place of business of an agent.
- n. A bond issued by a US government-backed entity, such as Fannie Mae.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The faculty of acting or of exerting power; the state of being in action; action; instrumentality.
- n. The office of an agent, or factor; the relation between a principal and his agent; business of one intrusted with the concerns of another.
- n. The place of business of am agent.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the state of serving as an official and authorized delegate or agent
- n. how a result is obtained or an end is achieved
- n. the state of being in action or exerting power
- n. an administrative unit of government
- n. a business that serves other businesses
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agens (present participle of agere ("to act")), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent). (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agēns, agent-, present participle of agere, to do; see agent. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The auditors also criticized the Office of Thrift Supervision, the federal regulatory agency that oversees nationally chartered savings & loans, saying the agency “did not adequately address Suburban’s problems early enough to prevent a material loss to the FDIC fund” and “did not adequately monitor the thrift’s actions through field visits” to ensure that any corrections regulators did suggest were actually made.”
Consumer Reports: Reports on failed banks show shoddy oversight
“In this paper, the term agency is used generically to refer to agencies, bureaus, departments, commissions, and other entities.”
“The title agency reports that the average price for a single family home is down 4 percent from a year ago, to $$430,019, while through July, the median sold price for a single family home is down 3 percent from the same time a year ago, to $362,000. jcolson@postindependent.com”
“Wickersham sold the title agency in 2003 and his contract with Alyeska was a condition of the sale, said Randy Strong, Alyeska president.”
“The title agency reports that the average price for a single-family home is down 4 percent from a year ago, to $$430,019, while through July, the median sold price for a single-family home was down 3 percent from the same time a year ago, to $362,000. jcolson@postindependent.com”
“They can work in your favor if the agency is able to offer discounts or extras, but the key is transparency.”
“Agencies" like S&P trade on the quasi-governmental ring that the word "agency" provides, but executives at S&P and the other raters are charged with increasing revenues and profits to boost profits.”
“This agency is a farcical version of the BPRD or SHIELD.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » How to Write a Novel Synopsis
“The FDA press office tells me the agency is aware of the incident and is currently investigating.”
“In the recall of about 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles, the agency is aware of 10 reports of children being hurt.”
The Huffington Post: Fisher-Price Recall 2010: 10 Million Kids' Products Recalled
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘agency’.
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BUDG - general terms
Budgetese - not a sexy topic but a very comprehensive list of words and collocations used in EU circles. Budgeting experts please comment and expand.
heading, across-the-board ..., emergency reserve, frontload, mopping-up, performance reserve, positive margin, negative margin, public finances, structural operat..., administrative ex..., management of EU ... and 657 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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CONT - general terms
additionality, audit trail, accounting standards, auditing standards, general audit obj..., a posteriori audit, a priori audit, above board, acceptable error ..., access rights, accountability, accountable entities and 1283 more...
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AFET - diplomacy
broker a peace ac..., client state, deadlocked peace ..., embassy, freeze, goodwill ambassador, hinterland, interfere in dome..., intervene personally, maintain technica..., mediation, no business as usual and 670 more...
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Groups
Words synonymous with 'group.'
congregation, crowd, gaggle, flock, clique, bunch, cluster, herd, mass, mob, multitude, organization and 118 more...
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AGRI - sustainable agriculture
abiota, aborigines, absorptive capacity, acceptable daily ..., acclimation, acid precipitation, acquired by weeds..., active solar heating, acute, adaptation, additives, aerosol and 447 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Rhetoric: The Harlot of the Arts
Words to do with rhetoric--study of, history of, practice of, theory of
rhetoric, paralepsis, invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery, copia, consubstantiation, trope, colon, tricolon and 56 more...
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• Senses
They told you they're five.
sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, proprioception, balance, temperature, parking, rhythm, business, snow and 68 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
andystardust's Words
liminal, soporific, solipsism, calumny, sanguine, egregious, inimical, corpus, divulge, a fortiori, salutary, evanescence and 118 more...
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Insurance Data-Related words
claimant, delete, register, invoice, spreadsheet, alert, electronic, cartridge, password, dashboard, certificate, presentation and 90 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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GMAT
part of speech, frown, brow, immensely, immense, incomprehensible, toil, concision, concise, proper noun, hyphenated, dash and 190 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 889 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for agency.
jwjarvis the freedom to choose...the ability to be an agent unto yourself...the ability to act instead of being acted upon Oct 9, 2010