| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| agree |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·gree |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -gr  |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: a·greed, a·gree·ing, a·grees
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To grant consent; accede: We agreed to her suggestion. 2. To come into or be in accord, as of opinion: I agree with you on that. Our views on the election agree. 3. To come to an understanding or to terms: We agreed on the price. 4. To be compatible or consistent; correspond: The copy agrees with the original. His story agrees with mine. 5. To be suitable, appropriate, pleasing, or healthful: Spicy food does not agree with me. 6. Grammar To correspond in gender, number, case, or person. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To grant or concede: My parents agreed that we should go. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English agreen, from Old French agreer, from Vulgar Latin *aggr tre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin grtus, pleasing; see gwer-2 in Appendix I. | | SYNONYMS: | agree, conform, harmonize, accord, correspond, coincide These verbs all indicate a compatibility between people or things. Agree may indicate mere lack of incongruity or discord, although it often suggests acceptance of ideas or actions and thus accommodation: We finally agreed on a price for the house. Conform stresses correspondence in essence or basic characteristics, sometimes as a result of established standards: Students are required to conform to the rules. Harmonize implies the combination or arrangement of elements in a pleasing whole: The print on the curtains harmonized with the striped sofa. Accord implies harmony, unity, or consistency, as in essential nature: “The creed [upon which America was founded] was widely seen as both progressive and universalistic: It accorded with the future, and it was open to all” (Everett Carll Ladd). Correspond refers to similarity in form, nature, function, character, or structure: The Diet in Japan corresponds to the American Congress. Coincide stresses exact agreement: “His interest happily coincided with his duty” (Edward A. Freeman).See also synonyms at assent.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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