as in ingratiation
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Recent Examples of smarm
At its worst, the earnestness curdles into self-congratulatory smarm.
—
Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 29 June 2024
The movie’s entrancing and melancholy beauty feels old-fashioned in a contemporary animation world largely defined by clutter and smarm.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 31 May 2024
Oliver brings in Matthew Broderick, playing himself with exaggerated smarm, who effortlessly breezes through the patter song.
—Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2024
That barreling is assisted mightily by the two male characters in the narrative, who take turns maximizing smarm and misogyny.
—David John Chávez, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for smarm
Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 29 June 2024
The movie’s entrancing and melancholy beauty feels old-fashioned in a contemporary animation world largely defined by clutter and smarm.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 31 May 2024
Oliver brings in Matthew Broderick, playing himself with exaggerated smarm, who effortlessly breezes through the patter song.
—Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2024
That barreling is assisted mightily by the two male characters in the narrative, who take turns maximizing smarm and misogyny.
—David John Chávez, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for smarm
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smarm
Noun
-
The OpenAI Model Spec — the document that describes what the company is aiming for with its products — warns against sycophancy, saying that: The assistant exists to help the user, not flatter them or agree with them all the time.—
Kelsey Piper,
Vox,
7 Dec. 2018
-
Meanwhile, competitors like Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft continue to push more aggressively into the AI space, offering AI assistants (that admittedly still make things up and suffer from other issues, such as sycophancy).—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
9 June 2025
Noun
-
While Monster Hunter Wilds received a lot of praise at launch, the longer-term fortunes of the game four months later have been dismal.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
21 June 2025
-
However, Khanna offered rare praise of Trump’s presidential campaign, approving of his promise from the 2024 election not to get into new wars.—
Grace Hagerman,
The Washington Examiner,
20 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Smarm.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smarm. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
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