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agree to disagree

/əˈgri tu ˈdɪsəˌgri/
IPA guide

Other forms: agreed to disagree; agreeing to disagree; agrees to disagree

If you and a friend with very strong views get into an argument where neither of you can convince the other, after a while you might just agree to disagree and stop arguing. Why waste time, and maybe ruin a friendship?

When you agree to disagree, it’s because there’s no progress in the discussion, and it's clear nobody's mind is changing. But you can decide to agree on one thing — the fact that it's OK if you continue to disagree on this one subject, and you don't need to convince each other in order to get along. So while agree to disagree sounds like a contradiction, it isn't. It's a way of keeping the peace and respecting each other while remaining free to hold different opinions.

Definitions of agree to disagree
  1. idiom
    decide together to stop arguing about something, while still having opposite opinions
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