Truce
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A period of time in which no fighting takes place due to an agreement between the opposed parties.
"An uneasy truce"
- 2 a state of peace agreed to between opponents so they can discuss peace terms wordnet
- 3 An agreement between opposed parties in which they pledge to cease fighting for a limited time.
"He asked for a truce with his school enemy for five days."
- 1 To come to an agreement to cease fighting. intransitive
"Only undaunted Henry de Tracey […] held up the cause; trucing at last, in loyal terms, till the king should become more powerful and be able in person to restrain the country."
Example
More examples"Then is it war again, after so long a truce?"
Etymology
From Middle English trewes, triwes, trues, plural of trewe, triewe, true (“faithfulness, assurance, pact”), from Old English trēowa, singularized plural of trēow, trȳw (“faith; pledge; agreement”), from Proto-West Germanic *treuwu, from Proto-Germanic *trewwō (compare Dutch trouw, German Treue, Danish tro, French trêve [< Germanic]), noun form of *triwwiz (“trusty, faithful”). More at true.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.