agency

Definition

The capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.

Etymology

From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agēns (present participle of agere (“to act”)), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent).

Example Sentences

• "A few advances there are in the following papers tending to assert the superintendence and agency of Providence in the natural world."
• "Because structure in this argument means institutions— pregiven norms, values, beliefs, and practices— it is open-textured, incomplete, cannot guarantee its own applications, therefore, all behavior is action, has agency (Garfinkel 1964; Strauss et al. 1963)."
• "moral agency"

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