placid
Americanadjective
-
pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed.
placid waters;
a placid temperament.
-
showing lack of energy or concern.
It is difficult to understand her relatively placid acceptance of the truth and its impact on her future.
Emotions ebbed from anger into placid resignation with the passage of time.
adjective
Usage
What does placid mean? Placid means calm, peaceful, quiet, and undisturbed. A close synonym is tranquil.Placid is used to describe things that have a calm appearance or a calm nature, such as a placid pond whose surface is perfectly still.When placid is used to describe people, it can mean that they’re very calm and even-tempered. However, placid can also mean showing a lack of energy or concern. Describing a person as placid in this way is often done to criticize them for not caring enough to take action in a situation that calls for action to be taken, as in You shouldn’t be so placid about injustice—you should do something about it instead of just ignoring it. When placid is used to describe animals, like dogs or cats, it usually means they stay calm and don’t get aggressive, as in Hospital patients are calmed by the old dog’s placid nature. The state of being placid is called placidity.Example: I love the sight of the lake’s placid waters at sunrise.
Related Words
See peaceful.
Other Word Forms
- placidity noun
- placidly adverb
- placidness noun
- unplacid adjective
Etymology
Origin of placid
First recorded in 1620–30; from Latin placidus “calm, quiet,” akin to placēre “to seem good, please” (originally, “to calm”); please, -id 4
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.
Steve Sosnick, the chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, writes that the president’s comments “challenged investors’ perceptions about a speedy end to hostilities and a fundamental tenet of U.S. equities’ placid response to the crisis.”
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
Children ages 4 to 8 will think they know what’s coming from the placid, old-timey barnyard setting, where the horse says “neigh” and the cow says “moo.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Lilac Hill has a placid surface, far removed from what England can expect to face at Optus Stadium next week.
From BBC • Nov. 14, 2025
This placid trading ultimately sent the three-month realized volatility for the S&P 500 to its lowest level since January 2020 last week, according to FactSet data and MarketWatch calculations.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 14, 2025
His normally placid expression was fierce and hard.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
