agency

[ey-juhn-see]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR agency ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural a·gen·cies.

an organization, company, or bureau that provides some service for another: a welfare agency.

a company having a franchise to represent another.

a governmental bureau, or an office that represents it.

the place of business of an agent.

Indian agency.

an administrative division of a government.

the duty or function of an agent.

the relationship between a principal and his or her agent.

the state of being in action or of exerting power; operation: the agency of Providence.

a means of exerting power or influence; instrumentality: nominated by the agency of friends.

Origin of agency

1650–60; < Medieval Latin agentia, equivalent to Latin ag- (root of agere to do, act, manage) + -entia -ency

Related formssub·a·gen·cy, noun, plural sub·a·gen·cies.un·der·a·gen·cy, noun, plural un·der·a·gen·cies.

Synonyms for agency

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR agency ON THESAURUS.COM

10. intercession, good offices.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for agency

department, firm, company, bureau, office, operation, force, organ, vehicle, medium, intercession, means, auspices, efficiency, work, influence, mechanism, mediation, instrument, activity

Examples from the Web for agency

Contemporary Examples of agency

Something like fluoride, which is too small for normal filters, yanks away that feeling of agency.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers
Michael Schulson
July 27, 2016
Wisner continues to feel angry toward the agency because she believes she was misled.
Judge: Rehoming Kids Is Trafficking
Tina Traster
December 30, 2014
Larson, as usual, instills gravitas and agency in an otherwise underwritten character.
Brie Larson’s Hollywood Transformation
Marlow Stern
December 29, 2014
It seems like you took a circuitous route, rather than coming up through some agency.
Anastasia Ashley, Surfer-Cum-Model, Rides The Viral Internet Wave
James Joiner
December 23, 2014
Well before the launch of the agency, the founders used their cameras to capture telling snippets of city life.
A History of Paris in 150 Photographs
Sarah Moroz
December 14, 2014

Historical Examples of agency

But the change had been effected among these by the agency of extreme want.
Freeland
Theodor Hertzka
He fell to them with only a perfunctory acknowledgment of my agency in procuring them.
Ruggles of Red Gap
Harry Leon Wilson
Perkins came to him, Perkins who had an agency in Manchester.
Changing Winds
St. John G. Ervine
What shall be done with an agency so fierce and absorbing as this?
College Teaching
Paul Klapper
There has been a 'flare-up' about money between Cashel and him, and it is said he 'll lose the agency.
Roland Cashel
Charles James Lever

British Dictionary definitions for agency

agency

noun plural -cies

a business or other organization providing a specific servicean employment agency

the place where an agent conducts business

the business, duties, or functions of an agent

action, power, or operationthe agency of fate

intercession or mediation

one of the administrative organizations of a government

Word Origin for agency

C17: from Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agere to do

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for agency

1650s, "active operation," from Medieval Latin agentia, noun of state from Latin agentem (nominative agens) "effective, powerful," present participle of agere (see act (n.)). Meaning "establishment where business is done for another" first recorded 1861.