Complacent

How to spell complacent

10 letters · 3 syllables

1 of the 23 people asked to spell complacent in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce complacent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does complacent mean?

1. adjectiveSmugly satisfied with how things are and unaware of potential dangers or shortcomings.

Complacent in a sentence

• The manager grew complacent after a few strong quarters and stopped checking the figures.

• Drivers can become complacent on a familiar route and miss obvious hazards.

Where does complacent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin complacens, the present participle of complacere, which meant 'to please greatly' or 'to be very pleasing'. That verb was built from the intensifying prefix com- and the verb placere, meaning 'to please', the same root that gives us 'placid', 'placate' and 'please'. English adopted it in the middle of the 1600s, and at first it carried the agreeable sense of being pleasant or obliging, much like its close cousin 'complaisant'. Over time the meaning soured into the modern idea of being smugly satisfied with oneself and dangerously unaware of risks. The spelling trap lives in the ending: the soft -cent is written with a c, not an s, even though the related word 'complaisant' keeps an s, so the two are easily muddled.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive: thoroughly)
• plac (to please, from Latin placere)
• -ent (adjective suffix)