Accord

How to spell accord

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce accord

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accord mean?

1. nounA formal agreement or state of harmony between people, groups, or nations.
2. verbTo give or grant something to someone, especially as a mark of respect or right.
3. verbTo be in agreement or consistent with something.

Accord in a sentence

• noun

  The two governments signed a peace accord after months of talks.

• verb

  The committee voted to accord her full membership.

• verb

  His account of the meeting did not accord with the official minutes.

• noun

  The unions reached an accord on pay before the deadline.

• verb

  The staff always accord visiting clients a warm welcome.

• verb

  The survey results accord with what staff had reported informally.

Where does accord come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Accord travels back to the Latin elements ad, meaning 'to', and cor, cordis, meaning 'heart', which combined in Vulgar Latin as accordare, literally 'to bring heart to heart' and so 'to bring into agreement'. English took it from Old French acorder in the 1100s, when it carried the sense of reconciling people or putting things into harmony. The heart at its centre is no accident: the Romans treated the heart as the seat of feeling and will, so to be 'of one heart' was to be of one mind. The same cor root surfaces in 'concord', 'discord', and 'courage', all of which trade on that idea of the heart. Remembering that buried 'cord' (the heart, not a rope) also explains the single c followed by the doubled c-pair: ac- is the assimilated form of ad-, which is why accord keeps its two c-sounds and a single c in spelling that learners often second-guess.

How the word is built

• ac- (to, from Latin ad-)
• cord (heart, from Latin cor)
• verb/noun base