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.
Importantly, this new rally comes at the tail end of one of the most notable S&P 500/gold ratio declines, “suggesting markets are not complacent at all about geopolitical risks/concerns,” he says.
From MarketWatch
Disconcertingly, Kelty believes markets are too complacent about the risks to other commodities like helium, in great demand from AI investment, data centers and semiconductor manufacturers, and urea used as fertilizer.
From MarketWatch
The first is that fund managers are surprisingly — some might say alarmingly — complacent about the stock market.
From MarketWatch
Unlike the long-ago transition to the cloud, which undid many existing software firms, incumbents aren’t being complacent this time around.
From Barron's
“People got a little complacent that fuel would always be $56,” and didn’t have to think about fuel prices in the past few years, he said.
From MarketWatch
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.
