Agent vs Catalyst - What's the difference?
agent | catalyst |
One who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor.
One who acts for, or in the place of, another (the principal), by authority from him; one intrusted with the business of another; a substitute; a deputy; a factor.
An active power or cause; that which has the power to produce an effect; as, a physical, chemical, or medicinal agent ; as, heat is a powerful agent.
(computing) In the client-server model, the part of the system that performs information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or server. Especially in the phrase “intelligent agent” it implies some kind of autonomous process which can communicate with other agents to perform some collective task on behalf of one or more humans.
(grammar) The participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation, e.g. "the boy" in the sentences "The boy kicked the ball" and "The ball was kicked by the boy".
(chemistry) A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.
* 1988 , Biochemistry , 3rd edition, page 177
Someone or something that encourages progress or change.
* 1978 , Ernest George Schwiebert, Trout , Volume 2
* 2004 , Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East , page 76
* 2006 , The Freedom Writers, with Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them , Diary 74
* '>citation
(literature) An inciting incident which that sets the successive conflict into motion.
(automotive) A catalytic converter.
As nouns the difference between agent and catalyst
is that agent is agent (intermediary for certain services, such as for artistic performances or public relations) while catalyst is (chemistry) a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.agent
English
(wikipedia agent)Noun
(en noun)- Heaven made us agents , free to good or ill. --Dryden.
- I see in him [Moby Dick] outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent , or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. --Herman Melville, , ch. 36
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* (grammar) patientDerived terms
* Agent Orange * agent noun * anti-caking agent * antibacterial agent * anticaking agent * antimicrobial agent * bleaching agent * bonding agent * chelating agent * chemical agent * clarifying agent * cleaning agent * coating agent * double agent * firming agent * flavoring agent * flavouring agent * gelling agent * leavening agent * lifting agent * oxidizing agent * processing agent * purchasing agent * raising agent * reducing agent * secret agent * sourcing agent * structuring agent * thickening agent * travel agent * user agent * wetting agent * whitening agentSee also
* proxyExternal links
* *Anagrams
* ----catalyst
English
Noun
(en noun)- Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations.
- Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace.
- It was a morning baptized by my first cup of coffee, freshly brewed over a gravel-bar fire, while they celebrated with the stronger catalyst of sour-mash whiskey in their fishing-vest cups.
- Israel's fear for the reactor—rather than Egypt's of it—was the greater catalyst for war.
- Rosa Parks was a true catalyst' for change and she was only one person. Hearing about Rosa Parks and her protest showed me that there is hope for me and all the students in Ms. G's classes to truly be ' catalysts for change.
