Pact

How to spell pact

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pact

What does pact mean?

1. nounA formal agreement or treaty between two or more parties.

Pact in a sentence

• The two nations signed a non-aggression pact before the summit.

• The siblings made a pact to share the inheritance equally.

Where does pact come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin pactum, meaning 'an agreement' or 'a covenant', which was the past participle of the verb pacisci, 'to make a bargain' or 'to come to terms'. That verb traces back to a root meaning 'to fix' or 'to fasten', the same idea of binding two parties together that survives in the related Latin word pax, 'peace', since a settled agreement brings peace. English took the word in through Old French and Latin during the late Middle Ages, around the 1400s, for a solemn or formal agreement between people or states. Because the root means a binding settlement, you can still hear that sense in modern phrases like a 'non-aggression pact'. The clipped, four-letter spelling mirrors the compact Latin stem and explains why the word looks so blunt and final.

How the word is built

• pact (from pactum: agreement, from pacisci 'to covenant')

Words that sound like pact

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• packed: Put things into a container, case, or bundle, especially in preparation for travel or storage.