Compliments

How to spell compliments

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce compliments

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does compliments mean?

1. nounExpressions of praise, admiration, or congratulation.
2. nounFormal good wishes or greetings sent to someone.
3. nounSomething provided free of charge, as a courtesy, in the phrase 'with the compliments of'.
4. verbPolitely praises or congratulates someone (third-person singular present).

Compliments in a sentence

• noun

  She received many compliments on her presentation.

• noun

  Please give my compliments to your parents when you see them.

• noun

  The dessert is on the house, with the compliments of the manager.

• verb

  She always compliments her colleagues on a job well done.

• noun

  He accepted the compliments with a modest smile.

• noun

  The gift card arrived with the compliments of the whole department.

Where does compliments come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin complementum, meaning 'something that completes or fills up', built on the verb complere, which literally meant 'to fill up' from com- (an intensifying prefix) and plere ('to fill'). In Italian the form complimento came to describe the courteous acts that 'complete' a social exchange, the polite words and gestures expected between people. Spanish cumplimiento carried the same idea of fulfilling a social duty, and the term passed into French as compliment before English adopted it in the early 1600s. For a long time 'compliment' and 'complement' were spelled interchangeably, since both grew from the same 'filling/completing' root, which is exactly why they remain such a notorious spelling trap today. The modern split fixed 'compliment' (with an i) to praise and 'complement' (with an e) to something that completes, but the shared ancestry explains the confusion.

How the word is built

• com- (together/intensive)
• pli (from plere: to fill)
• -ment (noun suffix)
• -s (plural/third-person)