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Pact has "peace" at its root because a pact often ends a period of unfriendly relations. The word is generally used in the field of international relations, where diplomats may speak of an "arms pact", a "trade pact", or a "fishing-rights pact". But it may also be used for any solemn agreement or promise between two people; after all, whenever two parties shake hands on a deal, they're not about to go to war with each other.
Examples of pact in a Sentence
T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, 30 Sep. 2025
Kaprizov's deal is for eight years, reportedly worth a record $136 million, surpassing the $124 million given to Alex Ovechkin in his 13-year pact signed in 2008.
—Ryan Morik, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2025
The pact follows CoreWeave’s recent expansion tied to OpenAI and sent CoreWeave shares up.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2025
The trade pact is also a one-off, unsupported by any institutional infrastructure.
—Jennifer Kavanagh, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pact.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pact. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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pact
nounMiddle English pact "agreement," from early French pact (same meaning), from Latin pactum (same meaning), derived from pacisci "to agree, contract"
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