contract
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahntraktSay the bold part a little louder.
noun: kontraktverb: kuhntrakt
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑntɹækt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
A binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law
law
An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.
law
The document containing such an agreement.
informal
An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
verb
Make smaller
“The heat contracted the woollen garment.”
transitive
To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
transitive
To gain or acquire (an illness).
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
To betroth; to affiance.
intransitive
To make an agreement or contract; to covenant.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
Used this way, contract is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Becoming infected.
Reduced in size or pulled together.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone (a person or firm) who contracts to build things.
Related to An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
By virtue of a contract.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A contract that is signed and has the (wax) seal of the signer attached.
Assign a job to someone outside one's own business.
Offer by an employer to contract to pay an employee at a given rate.
A sale of a tract of land as a whole without a warranty as to the acreage.
A contract that heavily restricts one party while leaving the other free (as some standard form printed contracts).
That branch of jurisprudence that studies the rights and obligations of parties entering into contracts.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A bodily organ that contracts.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.