as in vanity
an often unjustified feeling of being pleased with oneself or with one's situation or achievements
the sense of smugness that can come with too many easy victories
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smugness
Noun
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The main bedroom included a four-poster mahogany bed, a fireplace, a love seat, and a small table, while the bathroom offered dual vanities, ample closet space, and a deep soaking tub.—
Carole Dixon,
Travel + Leisure,
18 June 2025 -
Fire vanity projects and double down on core values.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
17 June 2025
Noun
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When egos are set aside, silos are broken, and people move as one — kids are found, hope is restored, and the system starts to change.—
Chloe Mayer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 June 2025
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The recent taco taunting has been a blow to his fragile ego that couldn’t go unanswered.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
23 June 2025
Noun
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Tall soldiers, the pride of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century armies—and in the case of Frederick William I of Prussia’s Potsdam Giants, a virtual fetish—became a liability on nineteenth-century battlefields.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
28 June 2025
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Meanwhile, the Pride Month display at the Stonewall National Monument excluded transgender pride flags this year, according to ABC News.—
Andrew Stanton,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 June 2025
Noun
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The lines between competitive stubbornness and plain old stubbornness, a healthy arrogance and prideful ignorance are pretty thin.—
Will Graves,
The Orlando Sentinel,
6 June 2025
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Individuals with big egos display excessive pride in their abilities and accomplishments, often leading to arrogance and overconfidence.—
AllBusiness,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
Noun
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The reasons include a stale concept, slow innovation, and operational complacency.—
Jim Osman,
Forbes.com,
19 June 2025
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If curiosity is a significant part of our DNA, another part is the fear of complacency, a fear of fear, of getting stuck.—
William Earl,
Variety,
11 June 2025
Noun
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Trump himself personifies stupidity’s essential feature — self-satisfaction, an inability to recognize the flaws in your thinking.—
David Brooks,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2025
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Just as there’s no dramatic build-up to Maria landing the part, there’s no romance to the process of acting it, nor the slightest whiff of self-satisfaction in recreating iconic scenes.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
21 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Smugness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smugness. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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