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:
The changes are largely aimed at sustaining a tariff agenda that has run into legal trouble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
As he starts his term as Fed chair, Warsh can’t count on the support of his fellow governors for his agenda, Bianco said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 2026
These seniors are former high-level workers in government and scientific fields who have an excellent understanding of the politics driving the administration’s agenda, and they are organizing to protest it.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
I suppose he could argue that Sarwar is an ally on his agenda to rewire how British politics works and can now agitate for change from within.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
But in the time since the book has come out, as I’ve talked to readers and revisited some of my ideas, I’ve come to believe that there is a social agenda in Blink as well.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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
It is worthwhile to know what their agendas are.
From Slate ● May 7, 2026
It was abandoned after Napoleon’s fall in 1814 and then completed, very slowly, by a series of architects under three different monarchs and several competing agendas.
From Salon ● May 3, 2026
Like James Gandolfini in “Loop,” or Daniel Kaluuya in “Get Out,” or Eddie Albert in “Green Acres,” Mr. Bonneville is playing the only bona-fide sane adult in a crowd beset by mental malfunction, i.e, agendas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
And this, in turn, meant that Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison arrived at the dinner with different agendas, different experiences, and different stories to tell.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
But a principal agendum of the conference is the limitation of submarines.
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 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
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 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
To this perfection it is, therefore, bound, as the fundamental science, to attain, and to it the maxim may justly be applied: Nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum.
From The Critique of Pure Reason by Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow
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.
