Alliance vs. Contract: What's the Difference?

A close association of nations or other groups, formed to advance common interests or causes

An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.

A formal agreement establishing such an association, especially an international treaty of friendship.

The writing or document containing such an agreement.

A connection based on kinship, marriage, or common interest; a bond or tie

The branch of law dealing with formal agreements between parties.

A long-term association of two or more animals of the same species, in which members cooperate for a purpose such as gaining access to mates or defending territory.

Marriage as a formal agreement; betrothal.

Close similarity in nature or type; affinity

The last and highest bid of a suit in one hand in bridge.

The act of becoming allied or the condition of being allied

The number of tricks thus bid.

(uncountable) The state of being allied.

Contract bridge.

(countable) The act of allying or uniting.

A paid assignment to murder someone

(countable) A union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league.

To enter into by contract; establish or settle by formal agreement

(countable) Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity.

To acquire or incur

(with the definite article) The persons or parties allied.

To reduce in size by drawing together; shrink.

(India) Marriage.

To pull together; wrinkle.

(obsolete) To connect or unite by alliance; to ally.

(Grammar) To shorten (a word or words) by omitting or combining some of the letters or sounds, as do not to don't.

The state of being allied; the act of allying or uniting; a union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league; as, matrimonial alliances; an alliance between church and state; an alliance between France and England.

To enter into or make an agreement

Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity.

To become reduced in size by or as if by being drawn together

The persons or parties allied.

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.

To connect by alliance; to ally.

(legal) 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.

The state of being allied or confederated

(legal) The document containing such an agreement.

A connection based on kinship or marriage or common interest;

(legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.

An organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty

(informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.

A formal agreement establishing an association or alliance between nations or other groups to achieve a particular aim

(bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.

The act of forming an alliance or confederation

(obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

(obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.

(ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.

(grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

(transitive) To enter into a contract with. en

(transitive) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

(intransitive) To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.

(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.

To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.

To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.

To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.

To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.

To betroth; to affiance.

To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.

To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.

To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.

Contracted; as, a contract verb.

Contracted; affianced; betrothed.

The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights.

A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.

The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.

A binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law

(contract bridge) the highest bid becomes the contract setting the number of tricks that the bidder must make

A variety of bridge in which the bidder receives points toward game only for the number of tricks he bid

Enter into a contractual arrangement

Engage by written agreement;

Squeeze or press together;

Become smaller or draw together;

Be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness;

Make smaller;

Compress or concentrate;

Make or become more narrow or restricted;

Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements;