agent A program which helps a user carry out some computer-related task. For example, an agent might be used to remind the user of a network that he or she should be sending a message to another user by a certain time. There are a number of categories of agents. REACTIVE AGENTS just respond to stimuli. A simple example of this type of agent is one that initiates a sound such as a beep when an email arrives. A DELIBERATIVE AGENT is one that uses some knowledge of an application area such as airline ticket booking to aid the user in carrying out a task such as booking an airline ticket or scheduling a meeting. This type of agent usually employs artificial intelligence technology. COLLABORATIVE AGENTS are collections of agents which work together. For example, an agent which carries out the process of planning the diary of a user may collaborate with an agent used for booking airline tickets in order to achieve an optimal spread of a user's time for a journey. A MOBILE AGENT is a program which moves from one computer to another carrying out some task for a user. For example, such an agent, used by a computer manufacturer, might visit the sites of components suppliers, find out how many components are in stock, and then return to its home computer and order an optimal mix of components to minimize some function of delivery time and price. Agents are very similar in concept to BOTS; indeed the two communities overlap considerably, and there is no consistent definition of what is a bot and what is an agent.

agent An autonomous system that receives information from its environment, processes it, and performs actions on that environment. Agents may have different degrees of intelligence or rationality, and may be implemented in software, hardware, or both.

Software agents operate in symbolic environments, and perceive and act upon strings of symbols; examples include personal assistant agents that enhance and customize facilities for computer users, and data mining agents that search for interesting patterns in large databases. In a distributed system, the agent for a remote procedure call is in a different computer from the caller; its environment is the network and the procedure body. A robot (see robotics) is an example of an agent that perceives its physical environment through sensors and acts through effectors.

a·gent / ˈājənt/ • n. 1. a person who acts on behalf of another, in particular: ∎  a person who manages business, financial, or contractual matters for an actor, performer, or writer. ∎  a person or company that provides a particular service, typically one that involves organizing transactions between two other parties: a real-estate agent. ∎  a person who obtains information for a government or other official body, typically in secret: an FBI agent. 2. a person or thing that takes an active role or produces a specified effect: bleaching agents. ∎  Gram. the doer of an action, typically expressed as the subject of an active verb or in a by phrase with a passive verb.

AGENT. In grammar, the person or other being that instigates the happening denoted by the verb: Jenny in the sentences Jenny has written me a letter and Jenny made Henry angry refers to the doer of the action or the causer of the event. In English, the semantic role of the subject in active constructions is typically agentive, but not exclusively so: books in These books sell well is not the agent but the affected. In a passive construction, the agent may be represented in an optional by-phrase: Anita and Michael were mugged (by some louts) on their way home last night. The term agent or agentive is used in case grammar for one of the sematic cases.

AGENT

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.

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

Agent

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

agent XV. — L. agēns, agent-, sb. use of prp. of agere do; see -ENT.
So agency XVII.

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• deodorant •different, vociferant •belligerent, refrigerant •accelerant • tolerant • cormorant •itinerant • ignorant • cooperant •expectorant • adulterant •irreverent, reverent •nascent, passant •absent •accent, relaxant •acquiescent, adolescent, albescent, Besant, coalescent, confessant, convalescent, crescent, depressant, effervescent, erubescent, evanescent, excrescent, flavescent, fluorescent, immunosuppressant, incandescent, incessant, iridescent, juvenescent, lactescent, liquescent, luminescent, nigrescent, obsolescent, opalescent, pearlescent, phosphorescent, pubescent, putrescent, quiescent, suppressant, tumescent, turgescent, virescent, viridescent •adjacent, complacent, obeisant •decent, recent •impuissant, reminiscent •Vincent • puissant •beneficent, maleficent •magnificent, munificent •Millicent • concupiscent • reticent •docent •lucent, translucent •discussant, mustn't •innocent •conversant, versant •consentient, sentient, trenchant •impatient, patient •ancient • 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