Make Your Point > Archived Issues > COMPLACENT
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pronounce
COMPLACENT:
Say it "come PLAY sunt."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
If you're complacent, you're cruising along, perfectly happy, perfectly unaware of the dangers ahead.
In other words, you're being bl___: relaxed and unconcerned when you really shouldn't be. Can you recall that synonym?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Complacent" has Latin bits that mean "very pleasing."
That's what "complacent" first meant in English, too: "quite pleasing, very pleasant, delightful, very satisfying." But over time, the meaning evolved.
Now, complacent things and people are full of self-satisfaction. They're so happy, pleased, and content with how things are that they can't even see that things need to change.
In other words, to be complacent is to be overly pleased with yourself and your current situation, often failing to realize that you need to take action, especially to protect yourself (and to protect your situation).
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "We're the #1 team now, but we shouldn't get complacent;" "She got complacent behind the wheel and got into an accident."
Other common forms:
Complacently, complacency.
how to use it:
Pick the formal, common word "complacent" when you want to point out how careless, thoughtless, or dangerous it is that someone has sat back and done nothing instead of taking necessary action.
You might talk about complacent people and attitudes, but most often, you talk about people being complacent about something: "He's gotten complacent about his health and never exercises anymore;" "Her achievements have made her complacent and she never tries anymore;" "We literally can't afford to be complacent about our budget."
examples:
"Researchers had become entirely too complacent about the potent electrical and nuclear forces with which they were working."
— Michael Hiltzik, Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex, 2015
"There's no room for excuses here, [Rachel Hollis] tells us in her books, live appearances and relentless social media posts: We're all going to wake up before dawn and punch complacency in the face."
— Mark Athitakis, Washington Post, 21 March 2020
has this page helped you understand "complacent"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "complacent" without saying "contented with yourself" or "ignorant of dangers."
try it out:
Talk about one of your most important goals, relationships, or responsibilities. What would happen if you got complacent about it? What do you do to avoid complacency?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for this month is "Provocative Verbs."
Check out the headline below. Originally, it included some highly emotional verb, like "bushwhack," "agonize," or "soar." But I've swapped it out for an emotionless one.
Try to restore the strong feelings that the headline originally evoked by choosing your own highly emotional verb to swap back in. For example, instead of "St. Jude Keeps Billions While Many of Its Families Use Their Savings," you might come up with "St. Jude Hoards Billions While Many of Its Families Drain Their Savings," the original provocative headline from ProPublica.
Scroll all the way down to see the original headline. You might think of the same verbs as the original writers did, or yours might be even spicier.
Try this one today:
From Slate: "The Trial That Led to a Riot."
review this word:
A. HEAVY.
B. VIGILANT.
C. CLUTTERED.
2.
In his book Open Heart: When Open-Heart Surgery Becomes Your Best Option, Chris Palmer urges against complacency, having learned that _____.
A. recovering from major surgery takes time, patience, and humor
B. nurses and other caregivers are sometimes abused by their patients
C. even the healthiest of lifestyles doesn't immunize us against heart disease
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
"Complacent" has Latin bits that mean "very pleasing."
Part of speech:
Pick the formal, common word "complacent" when you want to point out how careless, thoughtless, or dangerous it is that someone has sat back and done nothing instead of taking necessary action.
"Researchers had become entirely too complacent about the potent electrical and nuclear forces with which they were working."
Explain the meaning of "complacent" without saying "contented with yourself" or "ignorant of dangers."
Talk about one of your most important goals, relationships, or responsibilities. What would happen if you got complacent about it? What do you do to avoid complacency?
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |