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Agent vs Substance - What's the difference?

agent | substance |

As nouns the difference between agent and substance

is that agent is one who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor while substance is physical matter; material.

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

    See also

    * proxy

    Anagrams

    * ----

    substance

    Alternative forms

    * substaunce (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Physical matter; material.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances , which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}
  • The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance , not the appearance, chose.
  • * Bishop Burnet
  • This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
  • * (Edmund Burke) (1729-1797)
  • It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.
  • Substantiality; solidity; firmness.
  • Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
  • * Bible, (w) xv. 13
  • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Thy substance , valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • We are destroying many thousand lives, and exhausting our substance , but not for our own interest.
  • Drugs (illegal narcotics)
  • (theology) Hypostasis.
  • See also

    * style 1000 English basic words ----