How to Use sycophantic in a Sentence

sycophantic

adjective
  • In other words, a sycophantic lawyer is a bad lawyer.
    — Maggie Harrison Dupré, Futurism, 18 Mar. 2026
  • He could get rid of the sycophantic aides who spend so much time blaming each other.
    — Eugene Robinson, The Mercury News, 28 Mar. 2017
  • So get ready for a more reserved and less sycophantic chatbot, at least for now.
    — ArsTechnica, 29 Apr. 2025
  • Chatbots can often be sycophantic or agree with users’ viewpoints to a fault.
    — Jared Perlo, NBC news, 23 Jan. 2026
  • For my coverage on how AI is devised to be sycophantic, see the link here.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 23 May 2026
  • And on that note, the doc sometimes lets Sparks down in its near sycophantic sincerity.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2021
  • Osmond portrayed Haskell as sycophantic to grownups while making fun of them behind their backs.
    — NBC News, 18 May 2020
  • On the other side of the exchanges, Musk’s friends came across in some cases as sycophantic, careless or both.
    — Jaimie Dingstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2022
  • What becomes abundantly clear is that Toklas was far more than the silent sycophantic partner.
    — Daphne Merkin, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Woods didn't make the cut Friday, either, which was surprising only to his most sycophantic fans.
    — Tim Dahlberg, Star Tribune, 18 Sep. 2020
  • But the President is surrounded by a more sycophantic set this time around, and seems more brittle in the face of dissent.
    — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025
  • And just how did the spirit of the sycophantic Joe Buck manage to sneak into the broadcast booth, anyway?
    — Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Just accept the fact that AI makers are going to tune AI to be sycophantic.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
  • That’s also why the AI makers have ratcheted up the AI to be sycophantic.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 30 May 2026
  • Sasse’s sycophantic fanboys in the pundit camp were all willing to look past the way the senator’s own grasp on history was hardly by the book.
    — Jack McCordick, The New Republic, 30 Dec. 2022
  • Leavitt and her colleagues could stock the briefing room’s front rows with sycophantic figures – or move more serious questioners to the back.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 31 Mar. 2025
  • Like all other generative chatbots, its replies are sycophantic.
    — Jill Duffy, PC Magazine, 17 June 2026
  • Altman earlier this year admitted the chatbot was too sycophantic.
    — Parmy Olson, Mercury News, 20 Aug. 2025
  • She is portrayed as sycophantic to some, dismissive and patronizing to others.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 14 Sep. 2017
  • In our first exchanges, my noncommittal 10-word texts prompted hundreds of words in response, much of them sycophantic.
    — Amogh Dimri, The Atlantic, 2 Jan. 2026
  • Then comes the isolation of the dictator within his palace—friendless and paranoid—and the pruning of his circle to an ever more sycophantic few.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019
  • The researchers also found that humans who interacted with a sycophantic chatbot were less likely to apologize or take steps to make amends.
    — Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 5 Apr. 2026
  • On the track, a singer whom most believe to be the musician Cleo Sol croons about being trapped in a violent but sycophantic love affair.
    — Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2021
  • Several months ago, the company had to roll back a change that made the bot into a sycophantic mess that would suck up to the user at every opportunity.
    — Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 8 Aug. 2025
  • After all, humans often communicate with each other in sycophantic ways.
    — Cody Turner, The Conversation, 1 May 2026
  • Yes, Morrison is a towering figure in literature, but some of the praise at times spills over into the sycophantic.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, 9 July 2019
  • Something is definitely amiss in our system, namely a president who makes whine from sour grapes — and the army of sycophantic panderers who enable him.
    — Gilbert Garcia, ExpressNews.com, 11 Dec. 2020
  • There was even an entire episode that focused on his charity, The Prince’s Trust, which felt borderline sycophantic.
    — Louis Staples, Rolling Stone, 18 Nov. 2023
  • Unlike other, sycophantic portions of right-wing media, Kirk isn’t simply a hanger-on to the conservative elite.
    — Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2024
  • After the model has been trained, companies can set system prompts, or guidelines, for how the model should behave to minimize sycophantic behavior.
    — ArsTechnica, 12 June 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sycophantic.' 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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