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Instrument vs Agent - What's the difference?

instrument | agent | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between instrument and agent

is that instrument is a device used to produce music while agent is one who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor.

As a verb instrument

is to apply measuring devices.

instrument

Noun

(en noun)
  • A device used to produce music.
  • The violinist was a master of her instrument .
  • A means or agency for achieving an effect.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument , in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}
  • A measuring or displaying device.
  • The instrument detected an increase in radioactivity.
  • A tool, implement used for manipulation or measurement.
  • The dentist set down his tray of instruments'''.'' The scientist recorded the temperature with a thermometer but wished he had a more accurate ' instrument ."
  • (legal) A legal document, such as a contract, deed, trust, mortgage, power, indenture, or will.
  • A bond indenture is the instrument that gives a bond its value.
    Negotiable instruments are the foundation of the debt markets.
  • (figuratively) A person used as a mere tool for achieving a goal.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Or useful serving man and instrument , / To any sovereign state.
  • * Dryden
  • The bold are but the instruments of the wise.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * blunt instrument * debt instrument * derivative instrument * financial instrument * instrumentation * instrumental * instrumentive * measuring instrument * musical instrument * negotiable instrument * writing instrument

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To apply measuring devices.
  • To devise, conceive, cook up, plan.
  • To perform upon an instrument; to prepare for an instrument.
  • a sonata instrumented for orchestra

    Synonyms

    * (to apply measuring devices) measure, supervise * * (to perform on an instrument) play * (to prepare for an instrument) arrange

    See also

    * instrumental

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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

    * ----