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treaty.

A formal binding agreement concluded by subjects of international law, namely, states and international organizations; a convention, a pact.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɹiːti/Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɹiti/General-American/-ɾi/General-American/ˈtɹiːti/Ireland
  1. A formal binding agreement concluded by subjects of international law, namely, states and international organizations; a convention, a pact.

    countable
    to sign a peace treaty
    to write up a treaty touching climate change
  2. Chiefly in in treaty: discussions or negotiations in order to reach an agreement.

    archaic · uncountable
  3. Chiefly in private treaty: an agreement or settlement reached following negotiations; a compact, a contract, a covenant.

    archaic · countable
  4. The manner or process of treating someone or something; treatment; also, the manner in which someone or something acts or behaves; behaviour.

    obsolete · uncountable
  5. The addressing or consideration of a subject; discussion, treatment.

    obsolete · uncountable
  6. A formal, systematic discourse on some subject; a treatise.

    countable · obsolete
  7. An act of beseeching or entreating; an entreaty, a plea, a request.

    countable · obsolete
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English trete, trety (“bargaining, negotiation; discussion; conference, meeting; entreaty, persuasion; agreement, contract, covenant; arrangement, settlement; agreement between two rulers, states, etc.; written work on a particular subject, treatise; subdivision of a written work, section”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman treté, traité, treaté, and Old French traité, traitié [and other forms] (modern French traité (“agreement between two rulers, states, etc.; treatise”)); traité or traitié is: * a noun use of the past participle of traiter (“to treat; to deal with, handle”), from Latin tractāre, the present active infinitive of tractō (“to drag, haul, tug; to handle, manage; to debate, discuss; to exercise, practise; to perform, transact”), from trahō (“to drag, pull”) + -tō (frequentative suffix); and * also from Latin tractātum (“written work on a particular subject, treatise”), from Latin tractātus (“dragged, hauled, tugged; handled, managed; exercised, practised; performed, transacted”), the perfect passive participle of tractō (see above). The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/ˈtɹiːti/Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɹiti/General-American/-ɾi/General-American/ˈtɹiːti/Ireland
  1. To get into (a specific situation) through a treaty.

    transitive
  2. To enter into a treaty.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English trete, trety (“bargaining, negotiation; discussion; conference, meeting; entreaty, persuasion; agreement, contract, covenant; arrangement, settlement; agreement between two rulers, states, etc.; written work on a particular subject, treatise; subdivision of a written work, section”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman treté, traité, treaté, and Old French traité, traitié [and other forms] (modern French traité (“agreement between two rulers, states, etc.; treatise”)); traité or traitié is: * a noun use of the past participle of traiter (“to treat; to deal with, handle”), from Latin tractāre, the present active infinitive of tractō (“to drag, haul, tug; to handle, manage; to debate, discuss; to exercise, practise; to perform, transact”), from trahō (“to drag, pull”) + -tō (frequentative suffix); and * also from Latin tractātum (“written work on a particular subject, treatise”), from Latin tractātus (“dragged, hauled, tugged; handled, managed; exercised, practised; performed, transacted”), the perfect passive participle of tractō (see above). The verb is derived from the noun.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.