Complacent or complaisant?
complacent is an adjective meaning “Uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug”; complaisant is an adjective meaning “Compliant”. They sound the same (/kəmˈpleɪsənt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) complacent is about 68 times as common as complaisant.
What is the difference between complacent and complaisant?
| complacent | complaisant | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | Uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug Unduly unworried or apathetic with regard to a need or problem | Compliant Willing to do what pleases others; obliging; agreeable |
| Example | He grew complacent as the years rolled on and the money rolled in | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /kəmˈpleɪsənt/ | /kəmˈpleɪsənt/ /kəmˈpleɪzənt/ |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words | about once in every 44 million words |
Sources: complacent and complaisant in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of complacent and complaisant
complacent
- 1
Uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug
He grew complacent as the years rolled on and the money rolled in
- 2
Unduly unworried or apathetic with regard to a need or problem
He tried to paint his audience as complacent, yelling that if they weren't mad as hell then they weren't paying enough attention
complaisant
- 1
Compliant
- 2
Willing to do what pleases others; obliging; agreeable
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, complacent or complaisant?
complacent appears 1.5 times per million words; complaisant about once in every 44 million words.
complacent 1.5 times per million wordscomplaisant about once in every 44 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search complacent vs complaisant?
“complacent vs complaisant” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“complaisant vs complacent”, “complacent or complaisant”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.