# agency

Pronunciation: say "AY-juhn-see" /ˈeɪ.d͡ʒən.si/

## Noun

1. A department or administrative unit of a government; also the headquarters or district that the unit administers.
   - Simple: A part of the government that takes care of one type of work.
   - _The environmental agency issued new limits on factory emissions._
   - _Several federal agencies coordinated the disaster response._
2. A business that conducts transactions or provides services on behalf of others; also the office or territory it covers.
   - Simple: A business that does certain work or provides services for other people or companies.
   - _The advertising agency pitched three campaigns to the client._
   - _Our local agency handles insurance claims for several regional firms._
3. The capacity of a person or thing to act and bring about effects, especially an individual's ability to act independently and make their own free choices.
   - Simple: The power to act and make your own choices.
   - _Sociologists debate how much agency people retain within rigid social structures._
   - _The therapy aimed to restore the patient's sense of personal agency._
4. The function or office held by an agent, or the relationship binding a principal to the person acting on their behalf.
   - Simple: The job of acting for someone else, or the link between a person and their agent.
   - _The court examined whether agency existed between the broker and the seller._
   - _Under the doctrine, agency arises when one party consents to act for another._
5. A means or channel by which power is applied or a goal is reached.
   - Simple: A way or means used to get something done.
   - _The reforms were achieved through the agency of grassroots organizers._
   - _Pollutants reached the lake through the agency of underground streams._

## Origin

Latin agere means "to act," and its present participle agēns was the base of Medieval Latin agentia, the source of the English word. French agence and English agent are related.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/agency (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).