Agreement

How to spell agreement

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce agreement

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agreement mean?

1. nounA negotiated and typically formal arrangement or shared understanding between two or more parties.

Agreement in a sentence

• Both companies signed the agreement after weeks of negotiation.

• The tenants reached an agreement with the landlord over the rent.

Where does agreement come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from Old French agreement, built on the verb agreer, meaning 'to please' or 'to receive favourably'. That verb was itself formed from the phrase a gre, where a meant 'to' (from Latin ad) and gre meant 'pleasure' or 'goodwill' (from Latin gratum, the same root that gives us 'grateful' and 'gratitude'). So the original idea behind agreement was literally bringing something into a state that pleases the parties involved, a notion of mutual goodwill. English adopted the word in the 1400s, first for harmony of opinion and later for the formal contracts and arrangements we associate with it today. The spelling trap lives in the middle: writers often want to double letters or drop the e, but the structure is simply agree plus -ment, so keeping the full verb agree intact solves it.

How the word is built

• a- (to, from Latin ad)
• gree (from gré: pleasure, goodwill)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix denoting result or state)