agent

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A software routine that waits in the background and performs an action when a specified event occurs. For example, agents could transmit a summary file on the first day of the month or monitor incoming data and alert the user when a certain transaction has arrived. Agents are also called "intelligent agents," "personal agents" and "bots." See mobile agent, bot and workflow.

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Organization or individual authorized to operate on behalf of another organization in exchange for a fee or commission. See also advertising agency; cash field agent; catalog agency; direct-mail agency; paid in advance; paid during service; subscription agency; telephone agency.

Law: one who is authorized to act for another, who is the principal.

Real estate : a licensed salesperson who typically works under a broker.


Insurance: individual who sells and services insurance policies in either of two classifications:

1. An independent agent represents at least two insurance companies and (at least in theory) serves clients by searching the market for the most advantageous price for the most coverage. The agent’s commission is a percentage of each premium paid and includes a fee for servicing the insured’s policy.


2. A direct writer represents only one company and sells only that company’s policies. This agent is paid on a commission basis in much the same manner as the independent agent.

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1. a licensed real estate broker or salesperson. Frequently the term “real estate agent” refers to a licensed salesperson, whereas a broker is called “broker.” Generally, a broker’s license requires more experience and education. A salesperson must be sponsored as an active licensee by a licensed broker.


2. one who undertakes to transact some business or to manage some affair for another, with the authority of the latter.


Example: An owner engages a broker to act as agent in selling real property; the broker in turn engages salespersons to act as agents to sell the same property.

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noun

1. That by which something is accomplished or some end achieved: agency, instrument, instrumentality, instrumentation, intermediary, mean, mechanism, medium, organ. See means.
2. A person who secretly observes others to obtain information: operative, spy. Informal spook. Idioms: secretundercoveragent. See investigate.

n. in intelligence usage, one who is authorized or instructed to obtain or to assist in obtaining information for intelligence or counterintelligence purposes.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

An active communicating entity that can acquire a role; that is, an abstract representation of a function, service, or identity. Groups of agents represent organizational levels, described by the positions of the agents, and by the patterns of interaction of these positions. These positions are the roles, which do not exist independently, and are linked to a viewpoint of the organizational level. An agent's individual dynamics are brought about by a combination of different roles, which are related to the collective dynamics of the system, and functions and roles at those levels. This formal approach is used in agent-modelling software, which is used to describe and model the social and spatial structures of a real system.

One who is empowered to enter into binding transactions on behalf of another (usually called the principal).

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One who acts. The central problem of agency is to understand the difference between events happening in me or to me, and my taking control of events, or doing things. See action, determinism, free will, will.

In general terms, an agent is one authorized to act in place of, or on behalf of, another. An intelligence agent, however, is not simply an agent of or for an intelligence agency. Whereas members of the agency are called intelligence officers, operatives, or special agents, an agent is someone hired or recruited from outside. There are numerous other variations in the informal taxonomy of agents, including secret or undercover agents, agents provocateur, agents-in-place, double agents, and agents of influence.

The distinction between agents and operatives. Intelligence agency employees who work in the field do not call themselves agents; an agent is someone hired or recruited by an intelligence agency to do its bidding. The person to whom the agent reports—the actual agency employee—is known as an operative.

The distinction goes back to World War II and the origins of modern intelligence agencies. At that time, Office of Strategic Services (OSS) manuals defined an operative as "an individual employed by and responsible to the OSS and assigned under special programs to field activity." An agent, on the other hand, was defined by OSS as "an individual recruited in the field who is employed or directed by an OSS operative." The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), successor to OSS, calls its operatives CIA officers.

There are numerous variations on the term "agent." In the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under J. Edgar Hoover, operatives called themselves "special agents." By this designation, Hoover meant to distinguish FBI agents from ordinary police officers.

Secret agents, double agents, and agents-in-place. A secret agent or undercover agent is, simply enough, an agent who works in a clandestine capacity, such that the relationship with the intelligence agency is not obvious to those around him or her. These terms are more likely to show up in the vocabulary of laypeople than of intelligence operatives. In fact, such terminology is somewhat redundant, inasmuch as most agents must be secret or undercover in order to function effectively.

More useful are terms such as double agent or agent-in-place. A double agent is someone who seems to serve one intelligence agency, but actually works on behalf of another. Usually these agencies represent enemy governments, and the double agent provides information to one agency about the other or others. If, instead of two agencies, an agent serves three, the term triple agent is used. The double or triple agent may even be providing information to each service about the others, but usually there is only one entity that the double agent truly or ultimately serves.

A double agent whose perfidy has been discovered by the agency against which he or she is spying, and who is then used in that agency's service against the other, is a redoubled agent. An agent may be forced against his or her will to become a double agent. The same is true of a redoubled agent, a role an agent can assume without even knowing that he or she is doing so—for example, by being given inaccurate or deliberately deceptive material to pass on as genuine intelligence.

An agent-in-place is similar to a double agent, with the difference that, whereas a double agent is usually called upon by agency to take that role, the agent-in-place usually volunteers for the position. Suppose a person works for Agency A, then is sent to work for agency B so as to report information to Agency A without anyone at Agency B knowing. That is a double agent. On the other hand, an agent-in-place would be someone working for Agency B who, of his or her own initiative, offered services to Agency A. The agent would continue to work for Agency B, and feed information to Agency A.

An agent-in-place is extremely valuable to the employing agency, but his or her role has great risks. For agents in place working on behalf of America's enemies—for example, Robert Hanssen, the FBI special agent who sold secrets to the Soviets and later the Russians—discovery led to imprisonment. For agents-in-place working on behalf of America in the Soviet camp, the penalty for discovery was far worse. According to an anecdote reported by Henry Becket, when KGB officers discovered that one of their own was serving the Americans as an agent-in-place, he was thrown feet first into a roaring furnace while his colleagues watched.

Sleepers, provocateurs, and agents of influence. Several other interesting variations on the concept of an agent are sleeper agents, agents provocateur, and agents of influence. A sleeper agent is one placed in an undercover situation and told to await further instructions before beginning to actively engage in espionage activities. A sleeper may remain inactive for months or years, or even the rest of his or her life.

An agent provocateur is someone who infiltrates a group or organization with the purpose of inciting its members to unlawful acts that would bring them to the attention of—and most likely cause them to receive punishment from—authorities. Agents provocateur in labor organizations of the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, for instance, instigated mob violence that brought police action against workers' groups.

Finally, an agent of influence is someone who does not directly work for an intelligence agency, but is willing to act on its behalf. For example, right-leaning American intellectuals during the mid-twentieth century who worked for the Congress of Cultural Freedom, a CIA-sponsored group intended to influence western European opinion during the Cold War, often knowingly acted as agents of influence for U.S. intelligence. At the same time, many left-leaning Western intellectuals who were fed Soviet propaganda or disinformation, and who disseminated that material as truth, unwittingly acted as agents of influence for the KGB.

Further Reading

Books

Bennett, Richard M. Espionage: An Encyclopedia of Spies and Secrets. London: Virgin Books, 2002.

Nash, Jay Robert. Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Deeds and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today. New York: M. Evans, 1997.

Richelson, Jeffrey T. The U.S. Intelligence Community, fourth edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

One who agrees and is authorized to act on behalf of another, a principal, to legally bind an individual in particular business transactions with third parties pursuant to an agency relationship.

Term in parapsychology to denote the individual who attempts to communicate information to a percipient, or subject, of extrasensory perception.

1. An individual or firm that places securities transactions for clients.

2. A person licensed by a state to sell insurance.

3. A securities salesperson who represents a broker-dealer or issuer when selling or trying to sell securities to the investing public.

Investopedia Says:
Essentially, this is the person who makes a transaction on behalf of his or her employer or client.

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(DOD) In intelligence usage, one who is authorized or instructed to obtain or to assist in obtaining information for intelligence or counterintelligence purposes.

IN BRIEF: A person or company who acts on behalf of another.

A telescope will magnify a star a thousand times, but a good press agent can do even better. — Fred Allen

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Quotes:

"O world, world! thus is the poor agent despised. O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a-work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavor be so loved, and the performance so loathed?" - William Shakespeare

"Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent." - William Shakespeare

"If God had an agent, the world wouldn't be built yet. It'd only be about Thursday." - Jerry Reynolds

"It is well-known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other." - Benjamin Disraeli

"Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents." - Raymond Chandler

"The agent never receipts his bill, puts his hat on and bows himself out. He stays around forever, not only for as long as you can write anything that anyone will buy, but as long as anyone will buy any portion of any right to anything that you ever did write. He just takes ten per cent of your life." - Raymond Chandler

See more famous quotes about Agents

1. any power, principle or substance by which something is accomplished, or which is capable of producing a chemical, physical or biological effect such as a disease.
2. of disease; any factor whose excessive presence or relative absence is essential for the occurrence of a disease.

• adrenergic neuron blocking a. — one that inhibits the release of norepinephrine from postganglionic adrenergic nerve endings.
• alkylating a. — a cytotoxic agent, e.g. a nitrogen mustard, which is highly reactive and can donate an alkyl group to another compound. Alkylating agents inhibit cell division by reacting with DNA and are used as antineoplastic agents.
• anesthetic a. — substance capable of producing reversible general or local anesthesia.
• anticholinergic a. — cholinergic blocking agent.
• a. change — change in an animal's chemical or antigenic configuration can alter its pathogenicity. For example, a case of nitrate–nitrite poisoning in a cow can become a case of nitrite poisoning after conversion of the nitrate in the rumen. Mutation and antigenic drift are other types of change that vary agent pathogenicity.
• chelating a. — a compound that combines with metals to form weakly dissociated complexes in which the metal is part of a ring, and is used to extract certain elements from a system.
• chemical a. — substance that produces change by virtue of its chemical composition and its effects on living tissues and organisms.
• cholinergic blocking a. — one that blocks the action of acetylcholine at nicotinic or muscarinic receptors of nerves or effector organs.
• determinant a. — only some agents are determinants of diseases in that they always cause disease, and the same disease, and the disease does not occur without the agent. Many agents require the intervention of other factors, such as anaerobicity of tissue, hepatic insufficiency or physiological stress before they can establish their pathogenicity.
• ganglionic blocking a. — one that blocks cholinergic transmission at autonomic ganglionic synapses.
• immobilizing a. — see neuromuscular blockade.
• infectious a. — an organism able to live in or on the tissue of a living animal; may not necessarily cause disease.
• a. interaction — is the interaction between precipitating and predisposing causes of disease.
• oxidizing a. — a substance that acts as an electron acceptor in a chemical oxidation–reduction reaction.
• a. properties — are the properties which determine the pathogenicity of the agent, the solubility and acidity or biodegradability of a chemical, the virulence, adhesiveness, resistance to antibacterial agents of bacteria and viruses and so on.
• reducing a. — a substance that acts as an electron donor in a chemical oxidation–reduction reaction.
• surface-active a. — a substance that exerts a change on the surface properties of a liquid, especially one, such as a detergent, that reduces its surface tension. Called also surfactant.
• therapeutic a. — a substance capable of producing a curative effect in a disease state.
• a. without disease — exemplified by the orphan viruses. The agent is of a type that causes disease, but none is associated with the presence of the particular agent.

n

1. a person or product that causes action. n 2. a person authorized to act for, or in place of, another.

For a list of words related to agent, see:

• Judges, Lawyers, and Others in the Court System - agent: person authorized to act for principal in case
• Espionage and Intelligence - agent: one engaged in intelligence operations
• Employers, Employees, and Business People - agent: one authorized to represent another; traveling salesman
• Insurance - agent: representative selling policies for insurance company
• Real Estate Practice - agent: person legally empowered to represent owner, buyer, or landlord in sale or rental of real estate
• General Titles, Positions, and Status - agent: one who represents the interests of another
• Movie People and Show Business - agent: actor’s, writer’s, or director’s representative for finding work, making deals, and creating packages

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See words rhyming with "agent."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - agent, stedfortræder

idioms:

• agent provocateur    agent provocateur, politispion

Nederlands (Dutch)
tussenpersoon, spion, impresario, middel

Français (French)
n. - (Comm) agent, représentant, concessionnaire, (Ling) agent

idioms:

• agent provocateur    agent provocateur

Deutsch (German)
n. - Vertreter, Agent, Vermittler

idioms:

• agent provocateur    Agent provocateur

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αντιπρόσωπος, πράκτορας, μυστικός πράκτορας, μεσολαβητής, μεσάζων, μεσίτης, ατζέντης, (φυσ.) μέσον, άγων, παράγων, συντελεστής, (γραμμ.) ποιητικό αίτιο

idioms:

• agent provocateur    εγκάθετος, προβοκάτορας
• free agent    (καθομ.) ανεξάρτητος, αυτεξούσιος

Italiano (Italian)
agente, manager, mediatore, rappresentante, amministratore

idioms:

• agent provocateur    agente provocatore

Português (Portuguese)
n. - agente (m) (f), representante (m) (f), bilheteiro (m), reagente (m) (Quím.), corretor (m)

idioms:

• agent provocateur    agente provocador
• estate agent    corretor (m) de imóveis
• free agent    pessoa (f) que age independentemente

Русский (Russian)
агент, представитель, менеджер, агент по недвижимости, посол, администратор

idioms:

• agent provocateur    провокатор
• estate agent    агент по продаже недвижимости
• free agent    работающий не по контракту, может жить как хочет

Español (Spanish)
n. - agente, representante, empresario, comisionista, intermediario, gestor, enviado, administrador

idioms:

• agent provocateur    agente provocador

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - agent, ombud, medel

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
代理人, 仲介人, 代理商, 间谍, 特工, 密探

idioms:

• agent provocateur    密探, 奸细

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 代理人, 仲介人, 代理商, 間諜, 特務, 密探

idioms:

• agent provocateur    密探, 奸細

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 대리인, 중개인, 외무판매원, 스파이, 사무관

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 代行者, 代理人, 代理業者, 政府職員, 諜報員, 動因, 動作主, エージェント, 手先, 自然力

idioms:

• agent provocateur    工作員, まわし者
• reducing agent    還元剤

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عامل, قوه, موظف, أداه, وسيله, وكيل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סוכן, נציג, גורם, כוח‬

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