How to Use complacent in a Sentence

complacent

adjective
  • We have grown too complacent over the years.
  • The strong economy has made people complacent.
  • We can't afford to be complacent about illiteracy.
  • This is not the time to get complacent.
    — Lisa Rivera, New York Daily News, 11 June 2026
  • That's great, but now is not the time for the rest of us to get complacent.
    — Heather Hansman, Outside Online, 29 Jan. 2021
  • Life has thrown too much at me to ever get bored or complacent.
    — Jenn Pelly, Vulture, 17 May 2024
  • This is not the time to be complacent or quiet.
    — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 14 Nov. 2025
  • The goal is to take the pressure off and not become too complacent.
    — Laura Berman, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2023
  • But the stock market is as complacent as most consumers seem to be.
    — Terry Savage, Chicago Tribune, 6 June 2023
  • Well, now is not the time for the Giants to get complacent.
    — The Athletic Nfl Staff, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
  • That in no way means the game and people behind it should or have grown complacent.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Dec. 2023
  • Grow too slow and people get complacent, but grow too fast and people get burned out.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 6 Feb. 2023
  • The last couple of years have taught us that such thinking was, at best, complacent.
    — SI.com, 15 Oct. 2019
  • What makes the task ahead even more daunting is that the Aces know not to be complacent.
    — Ben Pickman, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Leagues which want to boost their financial might can't be complacent.
    — Scooby Axson, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2022
  • And too many of us have become complacent and inured to the misery all around us.
    — Heather Knight, SFChronicle.com, 13 July 2019
  • Mike Doustdar is not going to just take this and be complacent about it.
    — Angelica Peebles, CNBC, 12 Sep. 2025
  • The maps were still close in these matchups, so the Empire can’t get complacent against a strong team.
    — Sean Collins, Dallas News, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Leaders can no longer afford to be complacent.
    — Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The days of being complacent with going five innings need to end.
    — Jeff Bailey, The Denver Post, 14 Aug. 2019
  • But even with those blowout wins, the team is mindful of not getting complacent ahead of the playoffs.
    — Lila Bromberg, Hartford Courant, 13 Aug. 2022
  • Now Stricker will work to make sure his team doesn’t become complacent.
    — Steve Dimeglio, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 Sep. 2021
  • This doesn’t mean the United States should be complacent.
    — Daniel R. Depetris, Mercury News, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Western countries were too complacent and the sanctions are not enough.
    — Leila Atassi, cleveland, 25 Feb. 2022
  • Clearly, the markets have been quite complacent about the Fed.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 25 Jan. 2022
  • To be 5-0, that's a good start, but not being complacent is the hardest thing for guys not to do.
    — Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 11 Oct. 2021
  • The thing is, your competitors aren’t going to be complacent.
    — Pia Silva, Forbes, 3 Sep. 2021
  • Somewhere in the middle of the game, Rupp warned his guys to not become complacent.
    — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, 12 May 2018
  • MilkWood chef Glenn Dougan isn't one to be complacent in his work.
    — Nancy Miller, The Courier-Journal, 19 June 2018
  • If there ever was a complacent good ole boys culture, there is no better way to shake things up from top to bottom.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 22 Feb. 2024

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

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