Definition of representative

• a. - Fitted to represent; exhibiting a similitude.
• a. - Bearing the character or power of another; acting for another or others; as, a council representative of the people.
• a. - Conducted by persons chosen to represent, or act as deputies for, the people; as, a representative government.
• a. - Serving or fitted to present the full characters of the type of a group; typical; as, a representative genus in a family.
• a. - Similar in general appearance, structure, and habits, but living in different regions; -- said of certain species and varieties.
• a. - Giving, or existing as, a transcript of what was originally presentative knowledge; as, representative faculties; representative knowledge. See Presentative, 3 and Represent, 8.
• n. - One who, or that which, represents (anything); that which exhibits a likeness or similitude.
• n. - An agent, deputy, or substitute, who supplies the place of another, or others, being invested with his or their authority.
• n. - One who represents, or stands in the place of, another.
• n. - A member of the lower or popular house in a State legislature, or in the national Congress.
• n. - That which presents the full character of the type of a group.
• n. - A species or variety which, in any region, takes the place of a similar one in another region.