The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 letter word AGREEMENTS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
A
G
R
E
E
M
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N
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S
More clues leading to the result AGREEMENTS
- Architect initially welcomes housing staff's contracts
- Possibly treaties meet with anger, rioting and touch of sadness
- Teenagers vandalised houses close to Muslim settlements
- Like including soldiers in welcome deals
- An environmentalist grabbing me initially to sign pledges
- Spies conceal cock-up ere M arrives with contracts
- Compromises in meat and greens dispute
- More than once taking the same person to conventions
- Contracts a setter in new Telegraph supplement, initally
- Mere agents might make them
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "pledges" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case pledges = agreements.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does AGREEMENTS mean?
AGREEMENTS noun- An understanding between entities to follow a specific course of conduct.
- A state whereby several parties share a view or opinion; the state of not contradicting one another.
- A legally binding contract enforceable in a court of law.
- (grammar) Rules that exist in many languages that force some parts of a sentence to be used or inflected differently depending on certain attributes of other parts.
- (chiefly in the plural) An agreeable quality.