representative

Everyday

1. A person chosen to speak or act for others: our class representative. tree →
2. A person who works for a company and sells or explains its things: a sales representative. tree →
3. (US) A member of the House of Representatives. tree →
4. (adjective) Typical; showing what a group is like: a representative sample. tree →

In the lessons

In school, each class chooses a representative for the school council. In maths and science, a representative sample is a small group that fairly shows the whole group. Phrases: class representative, sales rep, representative sample.

Examples

• Our class chose Leo as our representative. tree →
• A representative from the bank visited the school. tree →
• The survey used a representative sample of pupils. tree →
• Is our sample representative of the whole school? tree →
• She is a representative in Congress. tree →
• Call a customer service representative. tree →
• Remarks.--No collection of Celtic Folk-Tales would be representative that did not contain some specimen of the gruesome. tree →

Note

Countable. Short informal form: rep. Maths: a sample is representative only if chosen fairly, otherwise results are biased.