Complacent

//kəmˈpleɪsənt// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug.

    "He grew complacent as the years rolled on and the money rolled in."

  2. 2
    Unduly unworried or apathetic with regard to a need or problem.

    "He tried to paint his audience as complacent, yelling that if they weren't mad as hell then they weren't paying enough attention."

Adjective
  1. 1
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
smugbovinecollectedcomfortablecompanioncomplacential

Example

More examples

"I got out right after having finished my streak, because I was too complacent. I let my team down."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin complacēns (“very pleasing”), present participle of complacēre (“to please at the same time, be very pleasing”), from com- (“together”) + placēre (“to please”); see please and compare complaisant.

Related phrases

self-complacent

More for "complacent"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.