How to Use complacency in a Sentence

complacency

noun
  • The public was lulled into complacency.
  • But of course, the flip of that is speed and complacency.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 24 Apr. 2026
  • But progress should not lead to complacency.
    — Ralph Clark, Boston Herald, 18 Mar. 2026
  • That's what kicking complacency in the nuts will do for you.
    — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2026
  • There is no room for complacency.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Given the stakes, complacency is a greater risk than alarmism.
    — Graham Allison, Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024
  • His has been a one-man crusade against complacency.
    — Sam Lee, New York Times, 25 May 2026
  • But there is also a risk of complacency if board members stay in place too long.
    — Stuart Jackson, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2022
  • There’s just something about that zip that shouts complacency, isn’t there?
    — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 22 Oct. 2020
  • This isn’t a time for complacency and the faith that a bad performance fades on its own.
    — Tal Axelrod, ABC News, 28 June 2024
  • When a team achieves sustained success, there can be a sense of complacency that sets in.
    — Nelson Espinal, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Oct. 2025
  • An easy game has been known to lead to complacency, and that should sit in the minds of the Swansea team.
    — SI.com, 12 Dec. 2017
  • But that was not done, simply because there was a sense of complacency.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2021
  • The time lag gives more time for confidence and complacency to build.
    — Justin Lahart, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Again, that should in no way suggest complacency in meeting the threat.
    — Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Sep. 2017
  • There’s no room for complacency.
    — Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 1 Apr. 2026
  • The biggest risk of all is complacency.
    — Gary Sernovitz, New Yorker, 15 June 2026
  • And if that happens, the politicians’ complacency will hit a wall.
    — Clive Crook, Twin Cities, 29 May 2025
  • Morano sees the show as a wake-up call to jostle its viewers out of complacency.
    — Emily Zemler, Esquire, 14 July 2017
  • The second set of eyes gets better, and the risk of complacency also goes up.
    — Brad Templeton, Forbes, 21 June 2022
  • The cost of prevention is high but the cost of complacency is far higher.
    — Emil Sayegh, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
  • World events played a part in the expansion of the office, but so did complacency.
    — New York Times, 24 June 2021
  • But what’s essential is to keep people out of harm’s way and to keep them from complacency.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 27 Dec. 2023
  • What’s more, a sense of complacency can easily lead to a surge of new outbreaks.
    — Yoni Heisler, BGR, 28 Feb. 2021
  • If this just sounds like an excuse for complacency, Swisher seemed to think so too.
    — Devin Gordon, The Atlantic, 21 Apr. 2022
  • Osborn cautioned that the absence of a rash should not lead to complacency.
    — Anna Groves, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12 July 2018
  • Mitchell refused to blame tired legs, or perhaps complacency with such a big lead, as factors in the loss.
    — Joe Vardon, New York Times, 20 May 2026
  • There’s been no complacency in Roland’s campaign thinking that this thing was in the bag.
    — Jasper Scherer, San Antonio Express-News, 26 June 2018
  • But that shouldn’t mean complacency as the season unfolds.
    — Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 1 June 2026
  • The indictment of Sun shows, once again, the risks of such complacency.
    — The Editors, National Review, 5 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'complacency.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: