agency.

1. The capacity to make choices and act in ways that influence circumstances.

2. An organization that provides a service or carries out an official function.

3. The action, means, or instrumentality through which an effect is brought about.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• individual agency
• exercise agency
• government agency

On the page

The account grants workers agency rather than treating them as passive victims.

A government agency collected the data but did not design the study.

Restricted resources can limit agency without eliminating every meaningful choice.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic. In social theory, agency interacts with structural constraints; it is not unlimited freedom. The institutional sense is countable, plural agencies; the capacity sense is usually uncountable. Capacity sense usually uncountable. Organization sense: singular agency; plural agencies. Derived family (not inflections): agent.