Truce

How to spell truce

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce truce

What does truce mean?

1. nounAn agreement between opposing sides to stop fighting or arguing for a period of time.

Truce in a sentence

• The two armies agreed to a truce over the holiday.

• After weeks of bickering, the brothers finally called a truce.

Where does truce come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Truce comes from the Middle English word trewes, which was the plural of trewe, meaning a pledge or promise of good faith. That singular form descends from the Old English treow, meaning faith, fidelity, or a covenant, and it is a close relative of the modern word 'true'. The idea was that warring parties gave their word to one another, so a truce was literally a set of mutual pledges to stop fighting. Over time the plural form hardened into the single word we use today, while the spelling settled on the unexpected -ce ending rather than the older -ws. Knowing that it shares its root with 'true' is a handy reminder that a truce is fundamentally a promise kept.

How the word is built

• truce (from Middle English trewes, plural of trewe: pledge of good faith, related to 'true')