placidity

American  

[pluh-sid-i-tee] / pləˈsɪd ɪ ti /

Also placidness

noun

1. a calm or peaceful quality; tranquility; serenity.

   It’s not uncommon for visitors to regard the placidity of Canada’s Peyto Lake as a spiritual experience.

2. lack of interest or proper concern, energy, or action; complacency or apathy.

   In a society that mistakes placidity for gentleness, I think we need spaces to explore, develop, and harness righteous anger.

---

Other Word Forms

• unplacidness noun

Etymology

Origin of placidity

First recorded in 1610–20; placid ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )

Example Sentences

But, as in “Men,” Kinnear’s appearance of placidity makes his characters’ nefarious tendencies even more chilling; his ability to draw his mouth into a grim implacable line is second to none.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2024

What might have been striking about Saturday was its placidity, especially in a month not famed for meteorological serenity.

From Washington Post • Dec. 4, 2021

People got married, divorced, babies were born and people died, and there was this placidity.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 2, 2021

The seeming placidity of the city was perhaps deceptive.

From New York Times • Jul. 27, 2021

But the placidity of his face belied an unusually active mind.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown