complacency

[ kuhm-pley-suhn-see ]

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.
   1. friendly civility; inclination to please; complaisance.
   2. a civil act.

complacency

/ kəmˈpleɪsənsɪ /

noun

1. a feeling of satisfaction, esp extreme self-satisfaction; smugness
2. See complaisance
   an obsolete word for complaisance

Other Words From

• noncom·placence noun
• noncom·placen·cy noun plural noncomplacencies
• over·com·placence noun
• over·com·placen·cy noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of complacency¹

From the Medieval Latin word complacentia, dating back to 1635–45. See complacent, -cy

Example Sentences

League officials and leaders of the NFL Players Association say those still playing must guard against complacency.

From Washington Post

Although deepfakes haven’t yet become the weapons of mass disinformation that some predicted, there’s no room for complacency.

From MIT Technology Review

Constraints challenge teams to think divergently and avoid complacency in the ideation process.

From Fortune

There’s a clear cultural complacency with things as usual, and although disappointing, that’s not particularly surprising in a field where the vast majority just don’t understand the stakes.

From MIT Technology Review

As the pandemic wears on, experts worry that complacency and fatigue could further fracture an already uneven response to the disease.

From Science News

In one sentence, he asserts: “Panic is worse than complacency.”

From The Daily Beast

A psychiatrist who attended one such conference blamed television for the complacency.

From The Daily Beast

But judging by our complacency, you would be forgiven for not knowing this.

From The Daily Beast

They went out of their way to tell me how such programs “breed” complacency, laziness, and—wait for it—dependency.

From The Daily Beast

This is a film that takes apart your complacency as surely as this alien world destroys Thomas Newton.

From The Daily Beast

But with the immaculate conception of Mary, a being full of grace, an object of God's supreme complacency entered this world.

From Project Gutenberg

It hardly ruffled the calm stream of his self-complacency, and, for some reasons, he was rather glad that it had happened.

From Project Gutenberg

It fell, and you were made to look with complacency on objects which not long since you would have regarded with horror.

From Project Gutenberg

Then, in the givers and in their gifts, in the workers and in their work, the Divine heart finds infinite complacency.

From Project Gutenberg

Maitland regained his old self-complacency in time and was dreadfully mysterious and Maitlandish about the whole affair.

From Project Gutenberg