What does treaty mean?
Word: Treaty
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Treaty means an official agreement, written down and signed, between two or more countries.
Synonyms: agreement, pact
Word origin: Comes from Old French traitie, from Latin tractatus.
How do you spell treaty?
Syllables: trea - ty
Tricky part: The "ee" sound is spelt ea, not ee, so students write treety.
Watch out for: treety, tretty
Memory tip: Peace and treaty share their ea, and a treaty is often signed to keep the peace.
Treaty in a sentence
Example 1: India and Bangladesh signed a treaty in 1996 to share the waters of the Ganga.
Example 2: The atlas shows a border fixed by an old treaty between the two countries.
Example 3: In the school play, the two kings signed a peace treaty under a banyan tree.
Fun Fact
The Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, sets the whole continent aside for peaceful science.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Spies
Choose the pair which has a spelling error:
a) treaty : treatys
b) valley : valleys
c) melody : melodies
d) ally : allies
Show answer
a) treaty : treatys. A y after a consonant turns into ies in the plural: one treaty, two treaties.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Treaty came into English through French from the Latin word tractatus. What did tractatus mean?
a) a long sea voyage
b) a list of names
c) a gift between rulers
d) a handling or discussion
Show answer
d) a handling or discussion. Tractatus meant the handling or talking over of a matter, and a treaty is what such talks produce.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with their meanings:
1. treaty 2. census 3. charter a. an official count of all the people in a country b. a binding deal struck between governments c. a formal document that sets out rights or rules
a) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
b) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
c) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
d) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
Show answer
a) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c. Nations sign a treaty, a census counts the people, and a charter sets out rights.
Word Champ
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
trea______
a) ty
b) tey
c) tie
d) tee
Show answer
a) ty. The word ends with a plain y after the t.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Where would you most expect to read about a treaty?
a) in a history textbook
b) on a cinema ticket
c) on a cricket scorecard
d) in a recipe book
Show answer
a) in a history textbook
2. If many countries sign a treaty about forests, they ___.
a) agree to follow shared rules about forests
b) promise never to visit a forest
c) stop all trade with one another
d) hand their forests to a single country
Show answer
a) agree to follow shared rules about forests
