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Agent vs Contractor - What's the difference?

agent | contractor |

As nouns the difference between agent and contractor

is that agent is one who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor while contractor is a person who executes the building or improving of buildings.

agent

English

(wikipedia agent)

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor.
    • Heaven made us agents , free to good or ill. --Dryden.
  • 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.
    • 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
  • 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".

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * (grammar) patient

    Derived 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 agent

    Related terms

    * act * action * agency

    See also

    * proxy

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    contractor

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person who executes the building or improving of buildings.
  • A person or company that performs specific tasks like electrical or plumbing work in construction projects.
  • A person or company hired to maintain existing facilities like air conditioning systems, groundskeeping, etc.
  • A person hired to do a job on a business contract, as opposed to a permanent employee.
  • * 1994 , , Dilbert:
    • It looks like you're off to a three-hour staff meeting that doesn't apply to me. I'm glad I'm a highly-paid contractor . I'll be increasing my skills while you fight to get oxygen to your brains.
    (Three hours later) I became a multimedia developer. How was your day?

    See also

    * contract