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Complacency vs Complicit - What's the difference?

complacency | complicit |

As a noun complacency

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

As an adjective complicit is

associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.

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.
  • complicit

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.
  • * 1861 , Henry M. Wheeler, The Slaves' Champion , p. 203,
  • It [slavery] has set the seal of a complicit , guilty silence upon the most orthodox pulpits and the saintliest tongues,
  • * 1973 , , As If by Magic , Secker and Warburg, p. 177:
  • "I confess," and the Englishman turned with a near complicit grin to Hamo, "I have certain vulgar tastes myself."
  • * 2005 , Larry Dennsion, " Letters," Time , 7 March:
  • Khan's sale of nuclear secrets and a complicit Pakistani government have made the world a ticking time bomb.

    Synonyms

    * complicitous

    Derived terms

    * complicitly

    References

    * * Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.