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A new federal law may accord with—or be in accordance with—the guidelines that a company has already established. The rowdy behavior of the hero Beowulf accords with Norse ideals of the early Middle Ages; but such behavior wouldn't have been in accordance with the ideals of a later young lord from the same general region, Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet. Accord is also a noun, meaning "agreement". Thus, we often hear of two countries signing a peace accord; and we also frequently hear of two things or people being "in accord with" each other.
Synonyms
Examples of accord in a Sentence
Erin Couch, The Enquirer, 7 Apr. 2024
The earth and Sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for Life.
—Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
In 2010, Yanukovych won the presidency promising to sign the accords.
—Siobhán O'Grady, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2024
And some leave of their own accord, tired of working at the hospital with the worst luck in the country, if not the world.
—TIME, 14 Mar. 2024
For example, Meta, Google, TikTok, and X all signed an accord last month to work together to combat the threat of AI in elections.
—Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic, 8 Mar. 2024
To date, 164 nations have signed a 1997 international accord, the Mine Ban Treaty, which bars the use of anti-personnel mines.
—Julie Tsirkin, NBC News, 20 Feb. 2024
Under the 1993 Oslo accords, some parts of the West Bank are administered by the Palestinian Authority, while the largest contiguous area is under Israeli security forces' control.
—Eleanor Beardsley, NPR, 23 Mar. 2024
The default candidate for that job is the PA, established by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as its governing executive during the Oslo peace accords, a series of agreements in the 1990s meant to lead to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
—Raja Khalidi, Foreign Affairs, 19 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'accord.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Verb
Middle English accorden, acorden "to reconcile, come to an agreement, be in agreement," borrowed from Anglo-French acorder, going back to Vulgar Latin *accordāre, from Latin ad- ad- + -cordāre, as in concordāre "to be in agreement," discordāre "to be in conflict" — more at concordance
Noun
Middle English accord, acord, borrowed from Anglo-French acord, acorde, noun derivative of acorder "to come to an agreement, accord entry 1"
Verb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 2
Noun
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Phrases Containing accord
Articles Related to accord
Dictionary Entries Near accord
Cite this Entry
“Accord.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accord. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
accord
2 of 2 noun
Legal Definition
accord
1 of 2 transitive verb
Note: Accord in this sense is often used to introduce a case or an authority that accords with the case or authority just cited, as for example in a sentence like “… a decision based on equitable principles. Accord Smith v. Jones, 1 F.2d 2 (1900).”
accord
2 of 2 nouncalled also executory accord
compare composition, compromise, novation, satisfaction, substituted contract at contract, transaction sense 3
More from Merriam-Webster on accord
Nglish: Translation of accord for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of accord for Arabic Speakers
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