complacent
Americanadjective
-
pleased, especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied.
The voters are too complacent to change the government.
- Synonyms:
- untroubled , unbothered , smug
-
agreeable and eager to please.
adjective
-
pleased or satisfied, esp extremely self-satisfied
-
an obsolete word for complaisant
Other Word Forms
- complacently adverb
- noncomplacent adjective
- overcomplacent adjective
- uncomplacent adjective
Etymology
Origin of complacent
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin complacent- (stem of complacēns, present participle of complacēre “to take the fancy of, please,” equivalent to com- “with, together, completely” ( com- ) + placēre “to seem good” ( please )
Compare meaning
How does complacent compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We can’t be complacent when nearly half our high school seniors have “below basic” skills in math, and reading skills across the board are 10 points lower than they were 30 years ago.
And Kansas City’s Jeffrey Schmid, who dissented in October in favor of no cut, said on Friday, “I don’t think we have room to be complacent,” on price increases.
From Barron's
Under cross-examination, he accepted he forgot to switch on his body-worn camera and did not use his whistle as he approached the pedestrian crossing but insisted he had not been complacent that day.
From BBC
Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the increase in unemployment and drop in the number of people on payroll shows the government's "complacent attitude to jobs and businesses".
From BBC
Observers have long shrugged off the danger with the complacent idea that students will see through their professors’ foolishness—if not right away, then when they enter the “real world.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
