agree

See also: agrée and agréé

English

Etymology

From Middle English agreen, from Old French agreer (“to accept or receive kindly”), from a gré (“favorably”), from Latin ad (“to”) + gratum (“pleasing”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to welcome, greet, praise”).

Pronunciation
  • enPR: ə-grē', IPA(key): /əˈɡɹiː/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /əˈɡɹi/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iː
  • Hyphenation: a‧gree

Verb

agree (third-person singular simple present agrees, present participle agreeing, simple past and past participle agreed)

  1. (intransitive) To be in harmony about an opinion, statement, or action; to have a consistent idea between two or more people.
    Synonym: concur
    all parties agree in the expediency of the law.
    I mostly agree with what you said, but I consider your last point to be unfair.
    I couldn't agree more with what you say.
  2. (intransitive, followed by "to") To give assent; to accede
    to agree to an offer, or to opinion.
    The workers did not agree to the new terms offered by the trade union.
  3. (transitive, UK, Ireland) To yield assent to; to approve.
    • 1666, Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, page 88:
      ... and there, after a good while in discourse, we did agree a bargain of £5,000 with Sir Roger Cuttance for my Lord Sandwich for silk, cinnamon, ...
    • 2005, Paddy McNutt, Law, economics and antitrust: towards a new perspective, page 59:
      The essential idea is that parties should enter the market, choose their contractors, set their own terms and agree a bargain.
    • 2011 April 3, John Burke, The Sunday Business Post:
      Bishops agree sex abuse rules
  4. (intransitive) To make a stipulation by way of settling differences or determining a price; to exchange promises; to come to terms or to a common resolve; to promise.
  5. (intransitive) To resemble; to coincide; to correspond.
    the picture does not agree with the original; the two scales agree exactly.
  6. (intransitive, now always with with) To suit or be adapted in its effects; to do well.
    the same food does not agree with every constitution.
  7. (intransitive, grammar) To correspond to (another word) in a grammatical category, such as gender, number, case, or person.
    Coordinate term: govern
    In Romanian, all articles, adjectives, and pronouns agree in gender, number and case with the noun they refer to.
  8. (intransitive, law) To consent to a contract or to an element of a contract.

Usage notes
  • This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
  • This is a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs
  • The transitive usage could be considered as just an omission of to or upon.
  • US and Canadian English do not use the transitive form. Thus "they agreed on a price" or "they agreed to the conditions" are used in North America but not "they agreed a price" or "they agreed the conditions".

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Anagrams

Galo

Noun

agree

  1. rainbow

Middle English

Verb

agree

  1. Alternative form of agreen

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English agreen, from Old French agreer.

Verb

agree (third-person singular simple present agrees, present participle agreein, simple past agreed, past participle agreed)

  1. to consent to
  2. (occasionally) to suffer no injury from (sth)

References
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