complaisant

eager to please or agree with others

Roots

  • com-: with, together, complete, or intensified
  • plac: please, soothe, settle into calm

Other words with the plac root

  • complacent: self-satisfied and unaware of risk
  • implacable: unable to be appeased
  • placate: to calm someone down
  • placatory: intended to soothe, calm, or appease
  • placebo: inactive treatment that may still produce a perceived benefit
  • placid: calm, peaceful, and undisturbed
  • placidity: calmness or peaceful stillness

Complaisant means ready to please: agreeable in a way that can become too yielding.

The complaisant assistant agreed to every request until the schedule collapsed.

Complaisant and complacent are cousins, not twins. Complaisant bends toward another person's wishes; complacent rests too comfortably in its own satisfaction.

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