representative
Pluralrepresentatives
Pluralrepresentatives
- 1A person who speaks or acts for someone else, often in an official job.
Like a friend who speaks for you when you cannot be there yourself.
The union sent a representative to talk with the company's managers.
She acted as her grandmother's representative at the bank.
UsageSay a representative of a group, or act as someone's representative.
Similardelegate, agent, envoy, spokesperson, emissary
- 2A person who acts for other people as a member of a group that makes laws or governs.
Like a class president who speaks for all the students at school meetings.
Our town elected a new representative last year.
People wrote letters to their representatives about the new road.
Similarlegislator, lawmaker
- 3Typical of a group, with the same features that most members of the group have.
Like one slice of a cake that tastes the same as the whole cake.
Is this small sample representative of the whole batch?
The houses on this street are representative of the area.
UsageSay representative of a group. People often say a representative sample.
Similartypical, characteristic
Oppositeunrepresentative, atypical, untypical
Note
- 4A member of the part of the United States Congress called the House of Representatives.
Our representative in Washington voted for the new law.
She wrote to her representative in Congress about health care costs.
UsageAs a title: Representative Smith. People also say congressman or congresswoman.
Similarcongressman, congresswoman, congressperson
Note
- 5A person whose job is to visit possible customers and sell a company's products.
A representative from the vacuum company came by to sell us a new cleaner.
The representative showed us samples of the new kitchen tools.
Similarsalesperson, agent, salesman, saleswoman
- 6One person or thing that belongs to a group and can be used as an example of it.
The lion is a famous representative of the big cats.
This old farmhouse is a good representative of homes from that time.
- 7Describes a kind of government where people vote for others to make laws and choices for them.
In a representative democracy, people vote for leaders who then make the laws.
After the war, the country chose a representative government instead of a king.
Similardemocratic
Less common meanings
- 8A thing that stands for or shows another thing, like a sign or symbol.
To the town, the old teacher was a living representative of its past.
In the fairy tale, the wolf is the representative of danger.
Similarsymbol, embodiment, emblem, personification
- 9Showing what a person, thing, or place looks like.
She likes representative art more than paintings made only of shapes.
The museum has one room of representative paintings and one of abstract art.
UsageFor art, people more often say representational.
Similarfigurative, realistic, lifelike
Oppositeabstract
- 10A thing used in place of another thing because the two are alike.
The scientists used a small model as a representative of the real bridge.
For the crash test, a dummy serves as the representative of a real driver.
Similarproxy, model, substitute, analogue, surrogate
- 11One item picked from a group of items that count as equal, used to stand for the whole group in math.
- 12A person who receives a dead person's money, property, or rights.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It came through Middle English from Middle French "representatif" and Medieval Latin "repraesentativus." Its parts can be seen as "represent" and "-ative."