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sycophantic

adjective

Simple meaning

Too eager to please.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sihkuhfantik

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

sɪkəˈfæntɪk

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Excessively eager to please, especially for personal gain; obsequious, flattering.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: Excessively eager to please, especially for personal gain; obsequious, flattering.

Used this way, sycophantic is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Keen and enthusiastic
Usage feel
Warm and expressive

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

sycophantic behaviorsycophantic attitudesycophantic laughtersycophantic tonesycophantic adulationsycophantic followerssycophantic flatterysycophantic language

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: excessively eager to please or especially for personal gain

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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.