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
Etymology
Origin of placid
First recorded in 1620–30; from Latin placidus “calm, quiet,” akin to placēre “to seem good, please” (originally, “to calm”); see please, -id 4
Explanation
Call a body of water placid if it has a smooth surface and no waves. Call a person placid if they don't tend to make waves by causing a fuss. Coming from the Latin placidus "pleasing or gentle," placid is most commonly used to describe a person who is not easily irritated or a body of water such as a lake that does not have waves to disturb the surface. Synonyms of placid in both meanings include calm, serene and tranquil. In other uses, placid describes something with little disruption — like "a placid neighborhood."
Vocabulary lists containing placid
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 3
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"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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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.
She holds up a sepia photograph in a silver embossed frame: the clairvoyant Isabel Barros Moreira, her mother’s mother, her face placid, with dark hair and dark eyes.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026
Oil prices nudged below $95 a barrel and U.S. stock futures were flat in placid early European trade, amid investor optimism around U.S.-Iran peace talks this week.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
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
"The first one by Cití Ní Ghallchóir is so sweet but still so sad and placid... she just seemed really exhausted," she said, noting that the other two felt "disgusting, painful and exaggerated."
From BBC • Dec. 31, 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.
