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• flattery
  flattery

  noun

  the act of flattering.
• Flattery
  Flattery

  noun

  Cape, a cape in NW Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, at the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait.

flattery

¹ American  

[flat-uh-ree] / ˈflæt ə ri /

noun

• flatteries
  plural

1. the act of flattering.

2. a flattering compliment or speech; excessive, insincere praise.

   Synonyms:

   pandering, sycophancy

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Flattery ² American  

[flat-ree] / ˈflæt ri /

noun

1. Cape, a cape in NW Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, at the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait.

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flattery British  

/ ˈflætərɪ /

noun

1. the act of flattering

2. excessive or insincere praise

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flatteries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flattery

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English flaterie, from Middle French, equivalent to flat(er) “to flatter” + -erie noun suffix; see flatter ¹, -ery

Explanation

Flattery is excessive praise. If you're hoping to borrow your brother's car, be careful not to overdo it when you compliment his haircut, new shoes, and singing voice — he knows flattery when he sees it. As opposed to real praise, flattery is insincere and almost always has an ulterior motive. The Old English root word of flatter is flater, which originally meant "to stroke with the hand or caress." When you stroke someone's ego to get what you want, you're using flattery. If the person you are wildly complimenting tells you that flattery will get you nowhere, you know it's time to back off.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flattery Flattery flatteries

With a mix of flattery and blind optimism, Seoul succeeded in setting up a first-ever meeting between a sitting US president and Kim Jong Un in 2018.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Nobody likes flattery from AI, but AI loves it from us.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Graham was, rhetorically, almost pathetically in Trump’s thrall, heaping flattery onto a president who’d once posted Graham’s phone number online for mass harassment.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026

The following year, 2019, was uneventful by comparison because the Europeans showered him with flattery.

From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2026

Shallow flattery for the big tipper, the judge thought.

From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin

Flattery in state media underscored the dictator’s need to establish cult-of-personality supremacy as a smokescreen for his nation’s woes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026

Flattery is the currency of diplomacy in Washington nowadays.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2025

Diamond’s crewmate, who has not yet been publicly identified, was found alive by a Canadian fishing family 13 days later, in a life raft 70 miles northwest of Cape Flattery.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2023

Flattery from a president, though I wouldn’t know, is likely addictive.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 27, 2021

We make it to the trailhead at Cape Flattery.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day

But I learned as little about Herman from these flatteries as I did from Einhorn’s gushing cliches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2021

Never was there a man more soft and honeyed in his conversation with ladies, and never was there a gallant who had a more abundant assortment of flatteries to lavish upon them.

From The Marquis of Pe?alta (Marta y Mar?a) A Realistic Social Novel by Armando Palacio Vald?s

There is more of artfulness in the flatteries which appear to involve a calculating intention to say the nice agreeable thing.

From Children's Ways by James Sully

Thereupon several young men approached her and favored her with an assortment of the insipid, commonplace flatteries of which such a prodigious supply is ordinarily consumed in fashionable salons.

From San-Cravate; or, The Messengers; Little Streams by Charles Paul de Kock

It is one of the filthy flatteries found in the English addresses, particularly that from Totness, that the present indulger is like another Cyrus who proclaimed liberty to the people of God, Ezra i.

From A Hind Let Loose Or, An Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland for the Interest of Christ. With the True State Thereof in All Its Periods by Alexander Shields