negotiation

UK/nɪˌɡəʊ.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/US/nɪˌɡoʊ.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,547 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: negotiations

Negotiation is the back-and-forth talk where two sides bargain towards a deal. Offers, refusals, and eventually a middle.

It is often plural, since negotiations covers a whole process running over weeks. The vocabulary is fixed: opening positions, sticking points, concessions and a breakdown if it fails. It takes with and over. Everyday life is full of it, since buying a house and settling a bedtime are both negotiations. The verb is negotiate, which also means to get past an obstacle, as in negotiating a narrow bend.

Definitions of negotiation

1nounnegotiationDiscussion aimed at reaching an agreement.B2+
“The negotiations ran for three days.”

Where it comes from

Negotiation is business. Latin negotiātiō meant the carrying on of trade, from negotiārī, to do business, so the word came into English out of the counting-house rather than the council chamber.

Latin
negotiatio — the carrying on of business, a wholesale business
Middle French
négociation
English, today
negotiation

Built from

negotiari · Latin — to carry on business

Borrowed from Middle French négociation, or from Latin negotiatio (“the carrying on of business, a wholesale business”), from negotiari (“to carry on business”). by surface analysis, negotiate + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Work & Careers, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 6 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

negotiation in the wild

The degree to which the negotiating parties trust each other to implement the negotiated solution is a major factor in determining the success of a negotiation.
Negotiation
People negotiate daily, often without considering it a negotiation.
Negotiation
In business negotiation, threats include the prospects that one party will walk away from the negotiation, file a lawsuit, or damage the other party's reputation.
Threat
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) begins negotiations to Josh Girard's (Lonny Ross) new contract.
Hard Ball
Crisis negotiation is often initiated by the first officer(s) on the scene.
Crisis negotiation

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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