Meaning of representative in English

representative

noun [ C ]

/ˌrep.rɪˈzen.tə.tɪv/ us

/ˌrep.rɪˈzen.t̬ə.t̬ɪv/

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someone who speaks or does something officially for another person or group of people:

The firm has representatives in every major city.

Representative

someone who has been elected to the US House of Representatives

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A representative from the tour company will meet you at the check-in.
He visited China in his official capacity as America's trade representative.
We have representatives operating in most countries.
In order to increase the number of female representatives, the selection committee decided to discriminate in favour of women for three years.
We elected him as our representative.

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Replacing and exchanging

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

International relations: United States politics & government

representative

adjective

/ˌrep.rɪˈzen.tə.tɪv/ us

/ˌrep.rɪˈzen.t̬ə.t̬ɪv/

representative adjective (TYPICAL)

typical of, or the same as, others in a larger group of people or things:

Are your views/opinions representative of all the workers here?

a representative sample/cross-section/selection

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Typifying, illustrating and exemplifying

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representative adjective (ACTING FOR)

A representative system of government is one in which people vote for politicians to represent them.

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Typifying, illustrating and exemplifying

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(Definition of representative from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

representative | American Dictionary

representative

noun [ C ]

/ˌrep·rɪˈzen·tə·t̬ɪv/

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politics & government (also Representative)

(abbreviation Rep.)

a member of the US House of Representatives; a congressman or congresswoman

representative noun [C] (ACT FOR)

a person who represents another person or a group:

The company has representatives in most European capitals.

politics & government

A representative is also a member of a law-making group.

representative

adjective [ not gradable ]

/ˌrep·rɪˈzen·tə·t̬ɪv/

representative adjective [not gradable] (DESCRIBE)

serving to describe, esp. a larger group of the same type:

A good political poll is based on a representative sampling of voters.

(Definition of representative from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

representative | Business English

representative

noun [ C ]

/ˌreprɪˈzentətɪv/ us

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COMMERCE

(also sales representative); (also informal rep)

someone whose job is to sell a company's products or services, especially by visiting or phoning customers:

We'll increase our team of representatives to help meet sales targets.

All shops are visited regularly by one of our sales representatives.

a person who is chosen to speak or act for other people:

Staff have been invited to elect a representative to attend management meetings.

A representative of the oil company made a press statement.

Examples of representative

representative

Their governing body is commonly open to representatives of civil society, people who risk their reputation and assume legal responsibilities for the privilege of leadership.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Conventions are at least in theory express agreements, voluntarily entered into between the heads of (or other representatives of) states.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Now, clearly, liberal democratic states can and do use coercive means in order to implement policies that have been agreed amongst democratically elected representatives.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Chiefs are the representatives of the orchestra; managers are in charge of management of the orchestra.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By deploying the language of class, the author argues, artisans sought to present themselves as representatives of a broader working class.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Once the inconvenience of this practice was discovered, the government began to name its representatives directly, choosing from its own ranks men of known competence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither representatives of kanganies nor labourers, who were also not yet formally organized during this period, formed a part of it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thirdly, and quite distinct from anything said so far, there may be an argument for representation even if the representatives do appropriate the rents.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Early modern authors practised an intellectual eclecticism, which frequently makes it difficult to describe them as representatives of one particular context or another.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rather than resist the implementation of new rules and practices, many chiefs have attempted to recast themselves as the ' authentic representatives ' of local communities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In these issues, representatives of indigenous peoples' organisations and states had different opinions and interpretations, which were discussed at length.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As elected members of the legislature, elected representatives are expected to represent their voters in the process of lawmaking.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He finds that both elected village heads and party representatives unambiguously acknowledge this.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Throughout the nineteenth century crop reporters had been elected like representatives of townships.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The former are often called representatives, the latter beneficiaries.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with representative

representative

These are words often used in combination with representative.

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appointed representative

We nevertheless expect that rules will be made restricting what sort of principals an appointed representative may have.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

at-large representative

He was an at-large representative for all but his second term, during which he represented the 2nd congressional district.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

authorized representative

Furthermore, a declaration of conformity of the device to these requirements has to be drawn up by the manufacturer or the authorized representative.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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What is the pronunciation of representative?

Translations of representative

in Chinese (Traditional)

代表, 代理人, 典型的…

Meaning of representative in English

representative adjective (TYPICAL)

representative adjective (ACTING FOR)

representative | American Dictionary

representative noun [C] (ACT FOR)

representative adjective [not gradable] (DESCRIBE)

representative | Business English

See also

Examples of representative

Collocations with representative

representative

Translations of representative

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