agency

CEFRC1

/ˈeɪ.d͡ʒən.si/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
A business or organization that provides a particular service.
02
noun
The ability to make choices and act independently.

Examples

"Manpower" is the world's largest temp agency.
She works for an advertising agency.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A medium through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.
The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.
The capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.

More examples

In context

Where's the nearest travel agency?
authority of agency
individual agency

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The government blank is responsible for environmental protection.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

A few advances there are in the following papers tending to assert the superintendence and agency of Providence in the natural world.
1695, John Woodward, “(please specify the page)”, in An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: And Terrestrial Bodies, Especially Minerals: […], London: […] Ric[hard] Wilkin...
Because structure in this argument means institutions— pregiven norms, values, beliefs, and practices— it is open-textured, incomplete, cannot guarantee its own applications, therefore, all behavior is action, has agency (Garfinkel 1964; Strauss et al. 1963).
2018, Morris Zelditch, Status, Power, and Legitimacy, page 65
Formally, capitalism performs its fundamental gesture—reappropriation without transformation. This bears on the question of subjective agency because this “reappropriation without transformation” is exactly what agency seeks to avoid; such a process indicates, in fact, that one's agency has failed, that one really had no agency in the first place.
2001, Todd McGowan, The Feminine "No!", SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 105
Strictly speaking, at the level of personal agency one could say that power is a condition where one is “enabled.” I would contend that this is a condition of personal agency.
2012, Edmund V. Sullivan, A Critical Psychology, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 75
The feeling of being in control of one's body should involve the sense of body-ownership, plus an additional sense of agency.
2013, Andy Clark, Julian Kiverstein, Tillmann Vierkant, Decomposing the Will, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 112

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Origin

noun

From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agēns (present participle of agere (“to act”)), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent).

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

The government blank— is responsible for environmental protection.

Nearby

Origin

noun

The government blank is responsible for environmental protection.