conciliatory

adjective

con·​cil·​ia·​to·​ry kən-ˈsil-yə-ˌtȯr-ē How to pronounce conciliatory (audio)
-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."

Examples of conciliatory in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web 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 Lai Ching-te, of Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party, is seen as less conciliatory toward China than Hou You-ih, of the Kuomintang. Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2024 The conciliatory words are a world removed from the rancor that separated the two entities nine months ago when Oatlands Inc. filed a lawsuit against the National Trust seeking about $3.7 million in damages. Joe Heim, Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2023 The punishment of Burke, who has opposed the pope’s leniency on divorce and his conciliatory approach to LGBTQ people, comes on the heels of the pope’s firing of another conservative critic, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, and underscores the tensions between Francis and the U.S. church. Francis X. Rocca, WSJ, 29 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'conciliatory.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1576, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of conciliatory was in 1576

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Cite this Entry

“Conciliatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conciliatory. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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