Agent may refer to:

Espionage, investigation, and law

*, spies or intelligence officers *

Law of agency The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a set of contractual, quasi-contractual and non-contractual fiduciary relationships that involve a person, called the agent, that is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the ...

, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another **

Agent of record An agent of record (AOR) is an individual or a legal entity with a duly executed contractual agreement with an insurance policy owner, in line with the prevailing legal norms and regulations of the region in which the contract was entered. The agen ...

, a person with a contractual agreement with an insurance policy owner **

Election agent An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...

, a person responsible for the conduct of a political campaign **

Free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, a sports player who is eligible to sign with any club or franchise **

Literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwrit ...

, an agent who represents writers and their written works **

Modeling agency A modeling agency is a company that represents fashion models, to work for the fashion industry. These agencies earn their income via commission, usually from the deal they make with the model and/or the head agency. The top agencies work with bi ...

, a person or a corporation which represents fashion models **

Press agent In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...

, a professional publicist **

Foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic missio ...

, a person who carries out the interests of a foreign country **

Political agent (disambiguation) Political Agent or political agent may refer to: *Political Resident, a representative with consular duties and political contacts with local chiefs *Political officer (British Empire), an officer of the British imperial civil administration, also ...

Patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and op ...

, an attorney who represents clients in patent matters **

Real estate agent A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

, an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate **

Registered agent In United States business law, a registered agent (also known as a resident agent, statutory agent, or agent for service of process) is a business or individual designated to receive service of process (SOP) when a business entity is a part ...

, in the US, receives service of process for a party in a legal action **

Shipping agent A shipping agency or shipping agent is the designated person or agency held responsible for handling shipments and cargo, and the general interests of its customers, at ports and harbors worldwide, on behalf of ship owners, managers, and charte ...

, a person responsible for handling shipments and cargo ** Sports agent, a legal representative for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches **

Talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...

or booking agent, a person who finds jobs for entertainment professionals **

Trade mark agent A trademark attorney (U.S. spelling) or trade mark attorney or agent (UK spelling) is a person who is qualified to act in matters involving trademark law and practice and provide legal advice on trade mark and design matters. In many countries, ...

, a person who represents clients in trade mark matters **

Travel agent A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinatio ...

, a retailer that provides travel and tourism related services * Special agent, an American criminal investigator or detective for example

Arts and entertainment

Fictional characters

Agent (comics) The Agent (Rick Mason) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by James Hudnall and John Ridgway, the character first appeared in ''Marvel Graphic Novel: Rick Mason, The Agent'' #1 (December ...

, a Marvel Comics character * Agent (''The Matrix''), a group of characters in the series * The Agents, superhuman characters in ''

Seven Samurai 20XX is a PlayStation 2 game released by Sammy Studios in 2004. Its story and concept are based upon Akira Kurosawa's 1954 movie '' Seven Samurai''. Rights for the production of the game were given by the Kurosawa production, with character designs b ...

Film and television

* ''The Agent'' (1922 film), featuring Oliver Hardy * ''Agent'' (film), an upcoming spy thriller film * ''Agent'' (TV series), a Polish reality competition

Music

Agent (band) Agent was an American hardcore band from Long Island, New York. History Agent began in 2006, releasing their first EP titled ''I Wouldn't Trade That for Anything'' on Iron Pier Records. In 2008, Agent released their second EP titled ''Awake In T ...

, an American hardcore band from Long Island, New York *

Agents (Finnish band) Agents is a Finnish band formed in 1979, playing rautalanka, schlager and rock'n'roll music. The head figure and musical director of the band is solo guitarist Esa Pulliainen. History Founding of Agents Agents was founded in 1979 on the ...

, a Finnish schlager/rock'n'roll band *

The Agents (Australian band) Jamie Francis "James" Griffin is an Australian singer-songwriter, poet, musician, playwright and broadcaster. His style is rock and country music, his work has been covered by other artists including The Black Sorrows and Lee Kernaghan Lee K ...

, led by James Griffin *

The Agents (English band) The Agents were an English post-punk band formed in 1980 in Bristol, England. The band formed from the remnants of several bands that were playing the American Military bases circuit in Europe in the 1970s. The band were based in Mannheim, Ger ...

, a Bristol post-punk band * "Intro: The Agent", by Rhymefest from '' El Che'' (2010) * "The Agent" (Little Man Tate song) (2006)

Other uses in arts and entertainment

* ''Agent'' (video game), a stealth action game

Science and technology

Biology and chemistry

Biological agent A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterroris ...

, a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, or fungus used as a weapon * Chemical agent, used as a

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...

Computing

Agent architecture Agent architecture in computer science is a blueprint for software agents and intelligent control systems, depicting the arrangement of components. The architectures implemented by intelligent agents are referred to as cognitive architectures.

, a blueprint for software agents and control systems * Agent-based model, a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of individuals *

Intelligent agent In artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent (IA) is anything which perceives its environment, takes actions autonomously in order to achieve goals, and may improve its performance with learning or may use knowledge. They may be simple or c ...

, an autonomous, goal-directed entity which observes and acts upon an environment *

Software agent In computer science, a software agent or software AI is a computer program that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency, which derives from the Latin ''agere'' (to do): an agreement to act on one's behalf. Such "action on behal ...

, a piece of software that acts for a user or other program *

User agent In computing, a user agent is any software, acting on behalf of a user, which "retrieves, renders and facilitates end-user interaction with Web content". A user agent is therefore a special kind of software agent. Some prominent examples of us ...

, software that is acting on behalf of a user

Other uses

Agency (philosophy) Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. It is independent of the moral dimension, which is called moral agency. In ''sociology'', an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure. Notably, though, the prima ...

, the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment *

Agency (psychology) In psychology, agents are goal-directed entities that are able to monitor their environment to select and perform efficient means-ends actions that are available in a given situation to achieve an intended goal. Agency, therefore, implies the abilit ...

, an attribute of humans and non-human animals *

Agent (economics) In economics, an agent is an actor (more specifically, a decision maker) in a model of some aspect of the economy. Typically, every agent makes decisions by solving a well- or ill-defined optimization or choice problem. For example, ''buyers'' (c ...

, an actor and decision maker in a model *

Agent (grammar) In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the thematic relation of the cause or initiator to an event. The agent is a semantic concept distinct from the subject of a sentence as well as from the topic Topic, topics, TOPIC, topical, or topicality ...

, in linguistics, the thematic relation of a cause or initiator to an event *

Agent noun In linguistics, an agent noun (in Latin, ) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is an agent noun formed from the verb "drive". Usually, ''derive ...

, a word identifying an actor, derived from a word denoting an action *

Cleaning agent Cleaning agents or hard-surface cleaners are substances (usually liquids, powders, sprays, or granules) used to remove dirt, including dust, stains, bad smells, and clutter on surfaces. Purposes of cleaning agents include health, beauty, removin ...

, a substance used to remove bad smells, clutter, dirt, dust, or stains on surfaces