conciliatory

adjective

con·​cil·​ia·​to·​ry kən-ˈsil-yə-ˌtȯr-ē 

-ˈsi-lē-ə-

: intended to gain goodwill or favor or to reduce hostility : tending or intended to conciliate

speaking in a conciliatory tone

But while the conference call might have been seen as a conciliatory gesture, an olive branch to his critics after weeks of bitter back-and-forth, the meeting seemed anything but.

—Colin Deppen

He was self-assured, aggressive, combative, at times willing to offend and at times trying to sound conciliatory.

—Dan Balz

Did you know?

If you are conciliatory towards someone, you're trying to win that person over to your side. The verb conciliate was borrowed into English in the mid-16th century and descends from the Latin verb conciliare, meaning "to assemble, unite, or win over." Conciliare, in turn, comes from Latin concilium, meaning "assembly" or "council." Conciliatory, which appeared in English a bit later in the 16th century, also traces back to conciliare. Another word that has conciliare as a root is reconcile, the earliest meaning of which is "to restore to friendship or harmony."

Synonyms

• appeasing
• conciliating
• disarming
• mollifying
• pacific
• pacifying
• peacemaking
• placating
• placatory
• propitiatory

Examples of conciliatory in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rat says, referring to a conciliatory gesture commonly offered to children. —Robert Peck, WIRED, 23 Feb. 2024

Nearly nine years later, Hodge's tone is more conciliatory than his 2016 statement to the hearing board. —Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic, 18 Mar. 2024

Now, the official Saudi response to these taunts is muted, and its policy toward its rivals is conciliatory. —Bernard Haykel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Feb. 2024

Frank Popoff, a chief executive and chairman who tried to make Dow Chemical more conciliatory toward regulators and environmentalists in the late 1980s and ’90s, and who prodded the chemical industry to adopt safer practices, died on Feb. 25 at his home in Midland, Mich., where Dow is based. —Richard Sandomir, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024

By 1967, Poitier’s star had risen so high that critics began to accuse him of being too conciliatory and demure in his approach to racial politics. —Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Mar. 2024

Opposition candidate Hou Yu-ih, whose Nationalist Party favors a conciliatory approach to China, trails by just a few percentage points in polls. —Harold Maass, The Week Us, theweek, 12 Jan. 2024

But Toyoda took a conciliatory tone on Tuesday by apologizing for safety issues that threaten to hurt the company’s brand. —Lionel Lim, Fortune Asia, 30 Jan. 2024

The consumer protest grew even larger after the initial response from the company was perceived as conciliatory by some LGBTQ advocates, prompting a wave of frustration on the left. —Emily Shapiro, ABC News, 31 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1576, in the meaning defined above

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