Complimentary

How to spell complimentary

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce complimentary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does complimentary mean?

1. adjectiveExpressing praise, approval, or admiration.
2. adjectiveGiven free of charge as a courtesy.

Complimentary in a sentence

• The manager wrote a complimentary note about her presentation skills.

• The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast to every guest.

• The reviews were overwhelmingly complimentary about the new restaurant.

• Each ticket includes a complimentary drink at the bar.

Where does complimentary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin complementum, meaning 'that which completes or fills up', built on complere 'to fill up' (from com-, an intensifier, plus plere 'to fill'). In Italian the form complimento drifted toward the social sense of a courtesy that 'completes' the requirements of polite behaviour, and from there it passed into French as compliment and into English in the early 1600s. The adjective complimentary, recorded soon after, came to mean both 'expressing praise' and, by extension, 'given free as a courtesy'. The notorious spelling trap is that complimentary (with an i) shares its origin with complementary (with an e, meaning 'completing'); both grew from the same Latin plere 'to fill', which is exactly why the two are so easily muddled. Remembering that you 'compliment with an i' to pay a courtesy can help fix the vowel.

How the word is built

• compliment (praise, courtesy)
• -ary (relating to)

Words that sound like complimentary

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• complementary: Combining well with something so that each part completes or balances the other.