agenda
Pluralagendas
- 1
- 2A planned schedule of matters to be dealt with, arranged in the order they will be handled.
The mayor's agenda for the week was packed with public events.
He laid out a clear agenda for the project's first three months.
Similardocket
Note
The everyday sense shows the word's Latin bones: agenda meant "things that ought to be done," a gerundive of agō, "I do." It began as a plural, but English treats it as a singular noun and pluralizes it as agendas. Agendae is a rare form best avoided, and the old plural reading lives on as the plural of agendum. Docket and to-do list are its plainer cousins.
- 3A hidden motive behind someone's actions; a set of concealed aims guiding what a person does.
Critics accused the senator of pushing a personal agenda behind the bill.
The group claimed to be neutral, but everyone suspected a hidden agenda.
Similarmotive, purpose, design
Note
Here the word leans toward suspicion, though not always. Hidden agenda and personal agenda name a concealed aim outright. When Jarvis Cocker, in Pulp's "My Sex," denies having one, he is answering that suspicion. Yet in political writing an agenda can simply be a declared program, as when Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty criticize Emmanuel Macron's. The tone there is critical, but nothing is secret.
- 4A notebook used to organize and keep track of plans, appointments, and to-do lists.
He pulled out his agenda to check whether the date was free.
Every student received a school agenda for tracking assignments.
Similarplanner, diary, organizer, datebook
Note
This meaning belongs to the classroom as much as the office. A homework agenda, or agenda book, is the notebook a student writes assignments into, and student planner is another name for it. Whether it comes cheaply from a drug store or is handed out by a school, it is an object you carry, so it takes the language of things: you write your assignments in your agenda.
Less common meaning
- 5A prescribed form of religious service or ritual.
Note
Worship once had its own agenda. The Latin "things to be done" behind the everyday planning sense was applied to the acts a service must perform, in order. The use is long obsolete, and modern readers will hear a meeting list instead. Outside historical writing, say rite, ritual or order of service.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of agenda apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Latin agenda ("things that ought to be done"), the gerundive of agō ("I do, act, make").