complacency

[ kuhm-pley-suhn-see ]
See synonyms for complacency on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural com·pla·cen·cies.
  1. a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

  2. Archaic.

    • friendly civility; inclination to please; complaisance.

    • a civil act.

Origin of complacency

1
From the Medieval Latin word complacentia, dating back to 1635–45. See complacent, -cy
  • Also com·pla·cence [kuhm-pley-suhns]. /kəmˈpleɪ səns/.

Other words from complacency

  • non·com·pla·cence, noun
  • non·com·pla·cen·cy, noun, plural non·com·pla·cen·cies.
  • o·ver·com·pla·cence, noun
  • o·ver·com·pla·cen·cy, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use complacency in a sentence

  • Seen in this light, infant mortality and the cruel wastage of disease were viewed with complacence.

  • If he has painted vice and shown Satan in all his pomp, it is without the least complacence in the task.

    Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile Gautier
  • Where there is the shining of the face we know there is more than forgiveness; there is favour and complacence.

    Separation and Service | James Hudson Taylor
  • The greater the number of the too longs or the too shorts the greater his complacence in the contemplation of his labours.

    Blue Goose | Frank Lewis Nason
  • You are not adjusting your life artistically; there is too much strain, too little warmth, too much self-complacence.

British Dictionary definitions for complacency

complacency

complacence

/ (kəmˈpleɪsənsɪ) /


nounplural -cencies or -cences
  1. a feeling of satisfaction, esp extreme self-satisfaction; smugness

  2. an obsolete word for complaisance

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012