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accord

n. · v.
US //əˈkɔɹd// UK //ɐkˈɔːd// ac·cord
  1. 1 formal agreement (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Formal Law

    a formal agreement between countries, organisations, or people.

    a formal agreement or treaty between parties, often international or political in nature.

    Example

    The two nations signed a peace accord to end the long border dispute.

    Example

    The environmental accord established strict carbon emission targets for all participating member states over the next decade.
  2. 2 harmony or agreement (n.)
    C1 Advanced Formal

    a state where people or things agree or work well together.

    concurrence of opinion or action; a state of harmony between different elements.

    Example

    The committee reached an accord after hours of difficult discussion.

    Example

    The architectural design was in perfect accord with the natural landscape of the surrounding valley.
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  1. 3 own free will (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate

    doing something because you want to, not because someone forced you.

    voluntary or spontaneous impulse to act; almost exclusively used in the phrase 'of one's own accord'.

    Example

    The witness decided to come forward of her own accord to tell the truth.

    Example

    He resigned of his own accord before the board had the opportunity to formally review his performance.

    Usage

    Commonly used in the prepositional phrase 'of one's own accord'.
  2. 4 to grant or give (v.)
    C1 Advanced Formal

    to give someone a particular kind of treatment, status, or respect.

    to grant, concede, or bestow something upon someone, typically a status, right, or privilege.

    Example

    The visiting president was accorded a very warm welcome by the local community.

    Example

    The constitution accords certain fundamental rights to every citizen, regardless of their social or economic standing.

    Usage

    Transitive verb; often takes an indirect object (to accord someone something).
  3. 5 to match or agree (v.)
    C1 Advanced Formal

    to be the same as or match something else.

    to be consistent with or correspond to a particular fact or rule.

    Example

    His version of the story does not accord with the evidence found by the police.

    Example

    The results of the second experiment did not accord with the initial hypothesis proposed by the research team.

    Usage

    Intransitive verb; usually followed by the preposition 'with'.
Etymology 1

From Middle English accord, from Old French acort, from acorder (see verb below).

Etymology 2

From Middle English accorden, acorden, borrowed from Old French acorder (compare modern French accord and accorder), from Vulgar Latin accordāre, from Latin concordāre via prefix substitution (with Latin ad-), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ḱḗr ~ ḱr̥d-, and thus distantly related to English heart (via Proto-Germanic hertô).

Word family

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