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Promise vs Agreement - What's the difference?

promise | agreement |

As nouns the difference between promise and agreement

is that promise is an oath or affirmation; a vow while agreement is an understanding between entities to follow a specific course of conduct.

As a verb promise

is to commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow.

promise

English

Alternative forms

* promyse

Noun

(en noun)
  • An oath or affirmation; a vow.
  • A transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.
  • * 1668 July 3rd, , “Thomas Rue contra'' Andrew Hou?toun” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), pages 547–548
  • He pur?ued Andrew Hou?toun upon his promi?e , to give him the like Sallary for the next year, and in ab?ence obtained him to be holden as confe?t and Decerned.
  • Reason to expect improvement or success; potential.
  • * Washington Irving
  • My native country was full of youthful promise .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), chapter=1
  • , title=(The China Governess) citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
  • (computing, programming) A placeholder object that can be manipulated in code before it has been assigned a value.
  • (obsolete) Bestowal or fulfillment of what is promised.
  • * Bible, Acts i. 4
  • He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.

    Verb

    (promis)
  • To commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
  • To give grounds for expectation, especially of something good.
  • The clouds promise rain.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1897, author=
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 citation , passage=I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.}}

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    *

    See also

    * (election promise)

    Statistics

    *

    agreement

    English

    Noun

  • (countable) An understanding between entities to follow a specific course of conduct.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe.
  • (uncountable) A state whereby several parties share a view or opinion; the state of not contradicting one another.
  • (uncountable, legal) A legally binding contract enforceable in a court of law.
  • (uncountable, linguistics) Rules that exist in many languages that force some parts of a sentence to be used or inflected differently depending on certain attributes of other parts.
  • *
  • Having clarified what we mean by ‘Person? and ‘Number?, we can now return to our earlier observation that a finite I is inflected not only for Tense, but also for Agreement . More particularly, I inflects for Person and Number, and must ‘agree? with its Subject, in the sense that the Person/Number features of I must match those of the Subject.
  • An agreeable quality.
  • * 1650 , (John Donne), "Elegie XVII":
  • Her nymph-like features such agreements have / That I could venture with her to the grave [...].

    Synonyms

    * (An understanding to follow a course of conduct) concord, convention, covenant, meeting of the minds, pact, treaty * (A state whereby several parties share a view or opinion) congeniality, concurrence, harmony, accord * (A legally binding contract) settlement * concord * (An agreeable quality) amenity, pleasantness, niceness

    Derived terms

    * agreement coorporation * agreement in principle * Buttonwood Agreement * collective agreement * concession agreement * framework agreement * gentleman's agreement * heads of agreement * in agreement * interest rate agreement * knock-for-knock agreement * letter agreement * margin agreement * Multilateral Agreement * nondisclosure agreement * option agreement * partnership agreement * prenuptial agreement * purchase agreement * sales agreement * Schengen Agreement * security agreement * service level agreement * single union agreement * Smithsonian Agreement * standby agreement * standstill agreement * strike an agreement with * subordination agreement * subscription agreement * throughput agreement * tolling agreement * tripartite agreement * underwriting agreement * working agreement

    Hyponyms

    * (An understanding to follow a course of conduct) conspiracy

    See also

    * consent, approval

    See also

    * consensus * (wikipedia)

    Statistics

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