placate
verb
Simple meaning
Cause to be more favorably inclined.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
playkaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpleɪkeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To calm; to bring peace to; to influence someone who was furious to the point that they become content or at least no longer irate.
Used this way, placate is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It keeps things gentle rather than emphatic.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Calm and reassuring
- Usage feel
- Understated and gentle
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to calm
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.