placating 1 of 2

adjective

as in appeasing
tending to lessen or avoid conflict or hostility a placating comment that seemed to calm everyone down a bit

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

placating

2 of 2

verb

present participle of placate
as in comforting
to lessen the anger or agitation of attempted to placate the screaming child by offering him a cookie

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of placating
Verb
The note is there when Sugar gets back, placating his suspicions (for now) and deflating his ego. — Andy Andersen, Vulture, 10 July 2026 Putin has struggled to manage fighting Kyiv on the one hand and placating domestic constituencies on the other. — Anna Nemtsova, Time, 23 May 2026 In your opinion, should the shop have handled this differently—perhaps compensating or at least placating me? — Hartford Courant, 25 Apr. 2026 If Paul’s creed is essentially Roman, then Christianity looks, from the outset, like a religion trained to live with empire, its compass always set toward placating power. — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026 But there’s no guarantee her successor will have any better success at placating the president. — Eric Tucker, Chicago Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026 Without these questions, our decisions become about placating requests. — Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, Forbes.com, 12 Mar. 2026 The story’s correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi accused CBS News management of placating the White House, turning the decision into a public relations fiasco for the network. — Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2026 The majority of the more than 200 speakers at the hearings, however, criticized the draft plan, often with passionate testimony, arguing that the state was simply placating water users and failing to demand the deeper water cutbacks necessary for restoring the delta and the upstream rivers. — Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for placating
  1. conciliatory
  2. appeasing
  3. soothing
  4. comforting
  5. benevolent
  6. pacific
  7. peaceful
  8. calming
Adjective
  • Trump reverses on housing bill Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks.
    — Mary Clare Jalonick, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2026
  • Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 June 2026
Definition of conciliatory
Verb
  • Tauruses usually follow the rules and do what is suggested to thrive and prosper because appeasing others is easier than arguing.
    — Lisa Stardust, PEOPLE, 26 June 2026
  • With the Ambassador Bridge and the tunnel being the current passageway, the economist said the Gordie Howe Bridge will alleviate the backups businesses have been seeing and are trying to avoid, while appeasing the many employees who travel back and forth for work.
    — Julia Avant, CBS News, 15 June 2026
Definition of appeasing
Adjective
  • That a series finally found some new themes to focus on is as much a soothing break as all the B-roll of ocean waves and clapboard houses.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 9 July 2026
  • My nearly two-hour Manoa Mist treatment included a full-body sugar exfoliation and soothing-but-therapeutic lomi lomi massage, performed by a therapist who spent years in the medical field and really knew her stuff.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 July 2026
Definition of soothing
Adjective
  • The toasty, yeasty aroma of sourdough straight out of the oven isn’t just comforting.
    — Jolene Thym, Mercury News, 6 July 2026
  • The ground beef, tomatoes, and brown rice are combined into a comforting bowl of comfort food for cold days.
    — Sheena Chihak, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 July 2026
Definition of comforting
Adjective
  • The teaser also offers glimpses of Vincent Lindon as Jean Valjean, the ex-convict who rebuilds his life as a benevolent industrialist, and Tahar Rahim as Inspector Javert, Valjean’s relentless nemesis.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 2 July 2026
  • Even though there are other siblings in the Fak family that make an appearance on The Bear, these brothers take center stage for their occasional quarreling and their benevolent behavior toward each other.
    — Lisa Stardust, PEOPLE, 25 June 2026
Definition of benevolent
Adjective
  • Olivier tried successfully to get the reader to understand how a gentle, pacific young man could come to kill more than a thousand people, and so capturing the tone and empathetic portrayal not only of Simo Häyhä and his colleagues but also of the often-bewildered Russian soldiers was essential.
    — Erik Pedersen, Oc Register, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Courtesy: Apple Apple on Tuesday sent invites to the media and analysts for a launch event at its campus on September 9 at 10 A.M pacific time.
    — Kif Leswing, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2025
Definition of pacific
Adjective
  • Bands perform as the peaceful crowd saunters, with the visual entertainment of beefy men cooking barbecue on giant grills.
    — Michael Goldstein, Forbes.com, 11 July 2026
  • The stunning spa, Thistle, is a peaceful escape that continues the hotel’s theme of bringing the outside in; treatments incorporate botanicals grown right on the farm.
    — Jess Feldman, Travel + Leisure, 10 July 2026
Definition of peaceful
Adjective
  • Across America charms — all four of my rides last week ended in audience applause — by simply being a calming, relaxed journey that stokes our sense of adventure.
    — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026
  • This very quiet space with very little ambient sound was meant to not feel calming, but like a pressure.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 6 July 2026
Definition of calming

Browse Nearby Words

placates
placating
placative
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Placating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/placating. Accessed 11 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on placating

Nglish: Translation of placating for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of xeric

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All