representative: Meaning and Definition of

rep•re•sent•a•tive

Pronunciation: (rep"ri-zen'tu-tiv), [key]
— n.
  1. a person or thing that represents another or others.
  2. an agent or deputy: a legal representative.
  3. a person who represents a constituency or community in a legislative body, esp. a member of the U.S. House of Representatives or a lower house in certain state legislatures.
  4. a typical example or specimen of a group, quality, or kind.
—adj.
  1. serving to represent; representing.
  2. standing or acting for another or others.
  3. made up of representatives: a representative assembly.
  4. of or pertaining to a system of governance by chosen representatives, usually elected from among a large group: representative government.
  5. exemplifying a group or kind; typical: a representative selection of Elizabethan plays.
  6. corresponding to or replacing some other species or the like, as in a different locality.
  7. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of representationalism.
  8. pertaining to or of the nature of a mental image or representation.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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