agreement

American  

[uh-gree-muhnt] / əˈgri mənt /

noun

agreements plural

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.

Synonym Usage

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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• agreements
  plural

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

See Examples For:

agreement agreements

"There is no greater way to honor Senator Graham's legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement," six Republican and Democratic senators said in a joint statement.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

If they’re successful in forming an agreement, this could allow the U.S. and Iran to restart talks over ending the 5-month-old conflict, people described as familiar with the situation were cites as having told Bloomberg.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Ford also recently agreed to a manufacturing partnership with Geely Automobile, a Chinese automaker who will build cars at a Ford plant in Spain as part of the agreement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

"This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right," eBay said on Tuesday.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

According to the quickly made agreement, Kontos and his men were promised full payment for the treasures they would bring up and hand over to the government.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Maxidel was not amused and insisted on the validity of previous agreements.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

An agreement with Apple may offer higher-margin financing agreements that further push the company toward sustained profitability.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

That’s why for the past half-century Washington has never included nuclear fuel-making as a part of any of its civilian nuclear agreements with states that lack nuclear weapons.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

"The administration has been careful not to exceed the tariff levels agreed to in bilateral agreements," Cutler said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

But I also knew the delicacy of our talks with the government; any agreements that we arrived at depended in part on their confidentiality.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

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