agreement

American  

[uh-gree-muhnt] / əˈgri mənt /

noun

1. the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement.

2. the state of being in accord.

3. an arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction.

   Synonyms:

   concurrence, accord, understanding

4. a contract or other document delineating such an arrangement.

5. unanimity of opinion; harmony in feeling.

   agreement among the members of the faculty.

6. Grammar. correspondence in number, case, gender, person, or some other formal category between syntactically connected words, especially between one or more subordinate words and the word or words upon which they depend; selection by one word of the matching formal subclass, or category, in another word syntactically construed with the first.

7. collective agreement.

8. Law.

   1. an expression of assent by two or more parties to the same object.

   2. the phraseology, written or oral, of an exchange of promises.

   Synonyms:

   pact, treaty, settlement

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agreement British  

/ əˈɡriːmənt /

noun

1. the act of agreeing

2. a settlement, esp one that is legally enforceable; covenant; treaty

3. a contract or document containing such a settlement

4. the state of being of the same opinion; concord; harmony

5. the state of being similar or consistent; correspondence; conformity

6. Also called: concord.  grammar the determination of the inflectional form of one word by some grammatical feature, such as number or gender, of another word, esp one in the same sentence

7. See collective agreement national agreement

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agreement Cultural  

1. A requirement for parts of a sentence in standard written English; the parts must agree, for example, in number and person. The subject and verb of a clause or simple sentence must agree in person, as in “He is a boy.” The subject, he, and the verb, is, are both in the third person. The subject and verb also must agree in number, as in “We are girls.” The subject, we, and the verb, are, are both plural. Nouns and pronouns must also agree in number, person, and gender as in “Every boy must mind his manners.” The noun boy and the pronoun his are both singular, both in the third person, and both masculine.

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Usage

What is a basic definition of agreement? Agreement is the state or act of agreeing, meaning coming to a mutually approved arrangement. Agreement is also used to mean a deal in which all parties accept the conditions or a unity of opinion. Agreement has several other senses as a noun. Agreement is the noun form of the verb agree, which means to be in harmony of feeling or opinion. Agreement, then, means the act of agreeing or a condition in which all people are content with a situation or what they must do. The opposite of agreement is disagreement.

• Used in a sentence: I thought Jack’s plan was good and nodded my head in agreement with everything he said. 

In a similar sense, an agreement is a deal or arrangement in which all parties accept the terms. An agreement can be an unspoken pact or an actual legal document that has punishments if it isn’t followed.

• Real-life examples: In a trade agreement between the United States and Canada, both countries must approve of what they sell to each other. You might come to an agreement with your friends to split the cost of a dinner. When renting a car, a customer will sign a rental agreement that outlines how much they will pay the lender if the car is damaged.
• Used in a sentence: The United Nations negotiated a peace agreement between the two warring countries.

Related Words

Agreement, bargain, compact, contract all suggest a binding arrangement between two or more parties. Agreement ranges in meaning from mutual understanding to binding obligation. Bargain applies particularly to agreements about buying and selling but also to haggling over terms in an agreement. Compact applies to treaties or alliances between nations or to solemn personal pledges. Contract is used especially in law and business for such agreements as are legally enforceable.

Other Word Forms

• interagreement noun
• nonagreement noun
• preagreement noun
• proagreement adjective

Etymology

Origin of agreement

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English agrement, from Middle French, equivalent to agree + -ment

Explanation

An agreement is made when two parties agree to something. So, for example, a mother might make an agreement with her son not to kiss him in public because, after kindergarten, well, that's just not cool. If people's opinions are in accord, or match one another, then they are in agreement. If a teacher assigns a ten-page paper due the next day, the students would be in agreement that the assignment was unfair. A written or verbal contract can also be called an agreement. An agreement to deliver an article a month for a publication could not be broken simply because you have writer's block.

Example Sentences

Most shipping companies will continue to wait and see if there is a tentative peace agreement and whether that might hold, Jensen says, and if that occurs, a slow ramping up of shipping may resume.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

As investors continue to monitor a fragile cease-fire agreement between the U.S. and Iran as the two countries negotiate a peace plan, inflation worries linger due to the spike in oil prices.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 12, 2026

An agreement with the FTC would be predicated on no admission of guilt or wrongdoing, some of the people said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026

The tentative agreement appear to show that both sides met in the middle over pay, but also shortened the length of the contract from the typical three years to two years.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026

Max, in kindergarten, had been fully in agreement with Josie that basketball-shooting playground equipment was much more interesting than any other topic.

From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Related Words

• approval
• arrangement
• charter
• compromise
• covenant
• deal
• lease
• negotiation
• pact
• protocol
• settlement
• transaction
• understanding