agency
[ey-juh n-see]
- 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.
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Origin of agency
1650–60; < Medieval Latin agentia, equivalent to Latin ag- (root of agere to do, act, manage) + -entia -ency
Synonyms
See more synonyms for agency on Thesaurus.com10. intercession, good offices.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for agency
Contemporary Examples
Something like fluoride, which is too small for normal filters, yanks away that feeling of agency.
Wisner continues to feel angry toward the agency because she believes she was misled.
Larson, as usual, instills gravitas and agency in an otherwise underwritten character.
It seems like you took a circuitous route, rather than coming up through some agency.
Well before the launch of the agency, the founders used their cameras to capture telling snippets of city life.
Historical Examples
But the change had been effected among these by the agency of extreme want.
FreelandTheodor Hertzka
He fell to them with only a perfunctory acknowledgment of my agency in procuring them.
Ruggles of Red GapHarry Leon Wilson
Perkins came to him, Perkins who had an agency in Manchester.
Changing WindsSt. John G. Ervine
What shall be done with an agency so fierce and absorbing as this?
College TeachingPaul Klapper
There has been a 'flare-up' about money between Cashel and him, and it is said he 'll lose the agency.
Roland CashelCharles James Lever
agency
- 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
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for agency
n.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper