What is another word for sycophantic?

Pronunciation: [sˌɪkəfˈantɪk] (IPA)

The word "sycophantic" is defined as someone who uses flattery to gain favor or advantage. Some synonyms for this term include obsequious, fawning, servile, and ingratiating. These words all describe individuals who go out of their way to please others in order to gain some kind of advantage for themselves. Other synonyms for sycophantic include toady, brown-noser, bootlicker, and ass-kisser. These words carry a more negative connotation, suggesting that the person is willing to degrade themselves to gain favor or advantage. Overall, these synonyms all refer to people who use flattery and insincere praise to win over others.

Synonyms for Sycophantic:

What are the hypernyms for Sycophantic?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the opposite words for sycophantic?

Sycophantic means behaving obsequiously towards someone in order to gain an advantage. Antonyms for sycophantic include honest, frank, sincere, straightforward, candid, genuine, independent, and honest. These words describe people who are not manipulative or false in their behavior towards others. Instead, they are truthful and speak their minds without fear of reprisal. They are willing to stand up for what they believe in and do not seek to curry favor or gain an unfair advantage over others. These qualities are valued in both personal and professional relationships, as they foster trust and mutual respect.

Usage examples for Sycophantic

It had made a great impression on him then, for he was at the height of his fortunes, with crowds of sycophantic friends and a retinue of dependents at his heels.
"Gallegher and Other Stories"
Richard Harding Davis
Several of the boys were near by-sycophantic followers of Jim, who were enjoying in advance the rumpus they expected.
"Hector's Inheritance or The Boys of Smith Institute"
Horatio Alger
In order to attain happiness in the army, the first step is to avoid differences of opinion with the civil and military police and non-commissioned officers, and such-like sycophantic myrmidons of authority.
"The Rough Road"
William John Locke

Famous quotes with Sycophantic

  • The world of this is a load of crap. You get all these bloody people, so incredibly sycophantic.
    Charlie Watts
  • I love to read the dedications of old books written in monarchies—for they invariably honor some (usually insignificant) knight or duke with fulsome words of sycophantic insincerity, praising him as the light of the universe (in hopes, no doubt, for a few ducats to support future work); this old practice makes me feel like such an honest and upright man, by comparison, when I put a positive spin, perhaps ever so slightly exaggerated, on a grant proposal.
    Stephen Jay Gould
  • I hate whales. I hate them. I can’t stand those stupid, blubbery, floating around, self-indulgent smug-faced krill-eating fat jerks with all their sycophantic hippie save-the- planet peacenik eco-terrorist generation X-er groupies. Greenpeace? Get a job!
    Arthur M. Jolly
  • They stand not aloof with the gaping vacuity of vulgar ignorance, nor bend with the cringe of sycophantic insignificance. The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.
    Thomas Paine
  • By laying such stress on the moral aspect of social institutions, Marx emphasized our responsibility for the more remote social repercussions of our actions; for instance, of such actions as may help to prolong the life of socially unjust institutions. But although is, in fact, largely a treatise on social ethics, these ethical ideas are never represented as such. They are expressed only by implication, but not the less forcibly on that account, since the implications are very obvious. Marx, I believe, avoided an explicit moral theory, because he hated preaching. Deeply distrustful of the moralist, who usually preaches water and drinks wine, Marx was reluctant to formulate his ethical convictions explicitly. The principles of humanity and decency were for him matters that needed no discussion, matters to be taken for granted. (In this field, too, he was an optimist.) He attacked the moralists because he saw them as the sycophantic apologists of a social order which he felt to be immoral; he attacked the eulogists of liberalism because of their self-satisfaction, because of their identification of freedom with the formal liberty then existing within a social system which destroyed freedom. Thus, by implication, he admitted his love for freedom; and in spite of his bias, as a philosopher, for holism, he was certainly not a collectivist, for he hoped that the state would ‘wither away’. Marx’s faith, I believe, was fundamentally a faith in the open society.
    Karl Marx

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