Placate

//pləˈkeɪt// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate. transitive

    "The gleam of the light on the paper placated his professional anger, and he wrote rapidly, the final dash of his signature curling the paper up in a triangular tear."

  2. 2
    cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Placid, peaceful. obsolete, rare

    "When are you more placate and serene?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
pacifyappeaseappeaseassuagecalmconciliate

Example

More examples

"Don't think you'll always be able to placate me with food!"

Etymology

First attested in the late 17ᵗʰ century; borrowed from Latin plācātus, perfect passive participle of plācō (“appease, placate”, literally “smooth, smoothen”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more), ultimately thought to be from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“smooth, flat”), from *pele- (“broad, flat, plain”). Related to Latin placeō (“appease”), Old English flōh (“flat stone, chip”). More at please.

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