self-complacent

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-complacent
Adjective
  • The kooky characters surrounding Judge Stone included the conceited prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), the imposing bailiff Bull Shannon (Richard Moll), and the idealistic public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post), each of whom had various quirks of their own.
    Dan Heching, EW.com, 28 Aug. 2025
  • This is the worst kind of football team: a conceited but objectively mediocre squad.
    Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 17 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • Three or four decades ago, the newspaperman was appealingly raffish—at once a bum who drank too much and a knight-errant who charged unafraid at social injustice, succored the weak, and crossed lances with the powerful and arrogant.
    David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Elsewhere, the details lifted from the book suffer in translation – Branagh’s Victor is appropriately arrogant but not adequately tortured; De Niro’s Monster is sensitive and intuitive, but drowns in the film’s hurried, hollow second half.
    Rory Doherty, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • The complacent faces of phony mediums swirl in my head, along with unsettling spirit photographs and images of puppies that had died with a sudden yelp for no apparent reason.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
  • What makes the task ahead even more daunting is that the Aces know not to be complacent.
    Ben Pickman, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Like the opera, the film blends these disparate moods and tones at a whirlwind tempo: slapstick comedy and poignant melodrama, graceful lyricism and bumptious braggadocio, witty satire and bitter tragedy.
    Richard Brody, New Yorker, 30 July 2025
  • This splendid, wry satire is about a wealthy family, self-important and confident in their morality, whose blithe and bumptious existences are thrown into disarray when their father clandestinely decides to give all their money to charity, and so (in their opinions) completely destroys their lives.
    Literary Hub July 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025
Adjective
  • This is a tense and volatile arena, and these are some proud and egotistical people.
    Jason Quick, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
  • But unlike the egotistical professor, Hill has made peace with his creation.
    Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • However, Ralph has a smug attitude when talking to Brad.
    Lisa Stardust, PEOPLE, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Colum’s smug assurance that the wedding will happen soon is rocked when Ned shows up with news of the Grants’ suspicions about the raid.
    Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • All but the most vainglorious architects imagine that their buildings will change in some small way after completion.
    Anthony Paletta, Curbed, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The real real thing tended to be rather different: clumsy, ad hoc, vainglorious—and secret.
    Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025
Adjective
  • While The Morning Show presents the news business as glossy and glamorous (and often a little pompous), The Paper takes the opposite view with the documentary crew from The Office now focusing on a dying newspaper in Ohio.
    Emma Alpern, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Guigal’s strategy isn’t built on pompous conservatism, but in long-term thinking.
    Paul Caputo, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Self-complacent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-complacent. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.

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