Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PLACATE
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pronounce
PLACATE:
Say it "PLAY kate."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
We bumped into the word placate once before, when we checked out the word implacable.
As in: "Sometimes our representative in Congress can placate us by listening to our concerns and promising to take action. Other times, we're too angry: we're implacable."
We've also checked out a few synonyms of placate. See if you can recall them:
1. To soften people's anger is to m_ll__y them.
2. To make angry people more peaceful is to p_c__y them.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Inside the word "placate," you can almost see the Latin placare, meaning "to calm, to soothe, to quiet."
And that's exactly what "placate" means." If you placate people, you calm them down, or make them less angry.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, the transitive kind: "They're trying to placate him;" "This promise won't placate our community; we demand action."
Other forms:
Placated, placating, placatingly;
placater(s);
placation(s).
For an adjective, you can pick between these two:
1. "Placative," pronounced either "PLAY kay tiv" or "PLACK uh tiv."
2. "Placatory," pronounced either "PLAY kuh tore ee" or "PLACK uh tore ee."
how to use it:
"Placate" has a formal tone, compared to more relaxed synonyms like "soothe," "calm down," and "win over."
It's a semi-common word. Pick it when you need to draw a little bit of attention to how someone is trying to make other people less angry. Especially when these efforts are unhelpful: "Nothing will placate them." "Their empty promises will never placate us." "We'll be placated only by real change, not by these meaningless gestures."
examples:
"One of the constituencies [that Daniel Snyder, the owner of a football team,] must placate is a fan base growing ever more disenchanted with the franchise."
— Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 22 July 2020
"Facebook [executives] met with members of the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change, who have organized a boycott of the company's advertising products in seeking to prompt change. The executives didn't 'commit to a timeline' to remove disinformation and hate speech... but instead 'delivered the same old talking points to try to placate us without meeting our demands.'"
— Kurt Wagner and Naomi Nix, quoting Jessica González of the advocacy group Free Press; Bloomberg; 7 July 2020
has this page helped you understand "placate"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "placate" without saying "appease" or "pacify."
try it out:
The robot devil seems implacable here, but I bet Fry could placate him by writing some dialogue with more nuance.
Futurama jokes aside, what's something that makes you very angry: so angry that you're implacable? What have people done to try to placate you--and why have these placations failed?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Everyday Etymologies!
If you're in the habit of looking up the etymologies of everyday words (wait, you aren't?), then you find, occasionally, certain ones that strike you as particularly apt, cute, strange, or poetic. I'd like to share some of those finds with you this month. In each issue, I'll give you the etymology of an everyday word, and you supply the word. We'll start easy and move into some tougher ones as the month goes on, but every answer will be an everyday kind of word, one you've been familiar with since, say, adolescence at least. To see the answer, scroll to the bottom of the issue.
Try this one today: This four-syllable noun traces back to a feminine Greek word meaning "the art of counting."
review this word:
A. CLEAN.
B. AGGRAVATE.
C. COMMEMORATE.
2. At the end of the movie, the Wizard placates the Scarecrow by _____.
A. failing to transport his friends Dorothy and Toto safely home to Kansas
B. admitting that his apparent magical powers are nothing but showmanship
C. awarding him a diploma, a symbol of the brainpower he so desperately craves
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
We bumped into the word placate once before, when we checked out the word implacable.
Inside the word "placate," you can almost see the Latin placare, meaning "to calm, to soothe, to quiet."
Part of speech:
"Placate" has a formal tone, compared to more relaxed synonyms like "soothe," "calm down," and "win over."
"One of the constituencies [that Daniel Snyder, the owner of a football team,] must placate is a fan base growing ever more disenchanted with the franchise."
Explain the meaning of "placate" without saying "appease" or "pacify."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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