What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cocksure vs Complacency - What's the difference?

cocksure | complacency |

As an adjective cocksure

is (informal) too confident; overconfident.

As a noun complacency is

a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.

cocksure

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (informal) too confident; overconfident
    • I thought myself cocksure of the horse which he readily promised me. — Alexander Pope.
  • * 1906 , John Galsworthy,
    • The persistence of the Past is one of those tragicomic blessings which each new age denies, coming cocksure on to the stage to mouth its claim to a perfect novelty.
  • *1920 , Sinclair Lewis, The Main Street ,
  • *:These crack specialists, the young scientific fellows, they're so cocksure and so wrapped up in their laboratories that they miss the human element.

    • complacency

    English

    Alternative forms

    * complacence

    Noun

    (complacencies)
  • A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.
  • *
    • There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency , more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
  • * Addison
    • Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency , if they discover none of the like in themselves.
  • An instance of self-satisfaction.

    • Related terms

    * complacent