- plural of agendum.
agenda
Americannoun
noun
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Also called: agendum. (functioning as singular) a schedule or list of items to be attended to
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Also called: agendas. agendums. (functioning as plural) matters to be attended to, as at a meeting of a committee
Usage
Agenda, “things to be done,” is the plural of the Latin gerund agendum and is used today in the sense “a plan or list of matters to be acted upon.” In that sense it is treated as a singular noun; its plural is usually agendas: The agenda is ready for distribution. The agendas of last year's meetings are printed in the official minutes. The singular agendum, meaning “an item on an agenda,” is rare.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of agenda
First recorded in 1745–55; from Latin, plural of agendum “that which is to be done,” gerund of agere “to do, drive”; the plural originally carried a collective sense denoting the various items to be transacted
Explanation
An agenda is a list of things to do. If you're going to attend a meeting with a long agenda, you'll want to take your coffee mug along. The word agenda is the plural for of the Latin word agendum, which literally means "something to be done." The noun retains this meaning because an agenda is a plan — organized by time — of events or things to do. You might have a meeting, a lunch date, and a doctor's appointment on your agenda for the day. And when you run for office, you better have a political agenda — or a plan for what you want to get done if elected.
Vocabulary lists containing agenda
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)
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President Trump's Second State of the Union Address (2019)
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Legend
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Norman, a veteran conservative and member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, supports much of Trump's agenda but has occasionally defied Republican leaders and backed Nikki Haley rather than Trump in the 2024 presidential primary.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
What is clear is that a return to acting more broadly is very much on the agenda for Meghan.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Many historians and academics accuse him of twisting history to fit his agenda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
More recently, the SSA told MarketWatch that its proposed budget for fiscal-year 2027 will highlight its “digital-first agenda and streamline operations.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
He could not believe that a dignified body of sober-minded legislators were allowing these “shaking Quakers” with their throbbing consciences to control the national agenda.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
The bizarre geography lesson appeared in student agendas distributed at Farnsley Middle School, part of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Ricci went viral for taking viewers behind the closed doors of his family’s quarterly money meetings, all the way down to agendas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Things go in ways both expected and unexpected, the two couples warily feeling each other out as they wait to spring their own private agendas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Describing the closure as "cruel", Varney said the products the company sells are a luxury item that falls off consumers' agendas once cost pressures strike, and people stick to the essentials.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
Our kids had their own agendas, which left them less impressed with even the more fun parts of ours.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
But a principal agendum of the conference is the limitation of submarines.
From Time Magazine Archive
The next most important agendum was the division of reparations so far received, a matter complicated by profits derived from the Ruhr occupation, seizures made, deliveries in kind received, etc.
From Time Magazine Archive
Principal agendum of the pages standing at the rostrum steps was to lift the train of each ascending delegate with combined dexterity, good timing and discretion.
From Time Magazine Archive
The first is, that in his enterprises and engagements he would have thought nothing done, till all had been done that was possible:- Nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum.
From Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit and Some Miscellaneous Pieces by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Their main agendum was to pronounce their complete independence of men.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, November 10, 1920 by Sir Owen Seaman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
