sycophancy

noun

sy·​co·​phan·​cy ˈsi-kə-fən(t)-sē 

also ˈsī-, 

-ˌfan(t)-

: obsequious flattery

also : the character or behavior of a sycophant

Examples of sycophancy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Models often learn to flatter users, a tendency known as sycophancy, and will sometimes prioritize this over honesty. —Ronan Farrow, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2026

Study came out a little while ago, talking about sycophancy in LLM chats and its effect on sort of attribution of fault during conflict. —Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 3 Apr. 2026

None of the companies directly commented on the Science study on Thursday but Anthropic and OpenAI pointed to their recent work to reduce sycophancy. —Matt O'Brien, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2026

Dana Calacci, who studies the social impact of AI at Pennsylvania State University and wasn’t involved in the new research, has found that sycophancy tends to get worse the longer users interact with the model. —Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 26 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

sycophan(t) + -cy, after Latin sȳcophantia, borrowed from Greek sȳkophantía, from sȳkophántēs + -ia -ia entry 1

First Known Use

1637, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sycophancy

• necromancy
• chancy
• dancy
• fancy
• fiancee