agent
/ˈeɪ.d͡ʒənt/
"agent" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“agent” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,622 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,622
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One who exerts power, or has the power to act.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | agent |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈeɪ.d͡ʒənt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,622 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “agent” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for agent is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈeɪ.d͡ʒənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,622 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for agent, with forms such as "aegnt", "agennt", and "agentt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ant", "ages", "aunt", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin agēnsder. English agent From Latin agēns, present active participle of agere (“to drive, lead, conduct, manage, perform, do”). The correct English form is agent, spelled A-G-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1One who exerts power, or has the power to act.
- 2One who acts for, or in the place of, another (the principal), by that person's authority; someone entrusted to act on behalf of or in behalf of another, such as to transact business for them.
- 3A person who looks for work for another person and brokers a deal between the hiree and hirer.
- 4Someone who works for an intelligence agency: whether an officer or employee thereof or anyone else who agrees to help their efforts (for ideology, for money, as blackmailee, or otherwise).
- 5An active power or cause or substance; something (e.g. biological, chemical, thermal, etc.) that has the power to produce an effect.
- 6In 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.
- 7The 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".
- 8A cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.
- 9A law enforcement officer tasked with enforcing a specific field of law.
- 10A respectful term of address for an agent, especially a law enforcement agent.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin agēnsder. English agent From Latin agēns, present active participle of agere (“to drive, lead, conduct, manage, perform, do”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aegnt,agennt,agentt,agetn,aggent,agnet,gaent
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of agent - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “agent”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-G-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈeɪ.d͡ʒənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ant” - see the side-by-side comparison. agent vs ant
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.