flattery

Syllables: flat·te·ry/ˈflæt.ə.ɹi//ˈflæt.ɚ.i/

flattery noun: excessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.

Noun

flattery (countable and uncountable, plural flatteries)

(uncountable) Excessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.
- Don't you know that some of his contributions here are pure flattery?
- That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
(countable) An instance of excessive praise.
- But I pitty the flatteries, and ſelfe-applauſes of a careleſſe and impenitent heart: This jollity hath in it much danger, and vvithout ſome change, death.1651, Jos[eph] Hall, “Soliloq[uy] XI. False Joy.”, in Susurrium cum Deo. Soliloquies: Or, Holy Self-conferences of the Devout Soul, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Hunt, and are to be sold by...

Proper noun capitalized: Flattery

Flattery (plural Flatterys)

A surname from Irish.

flattery meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

flattery in Hindi

excessive praise: चापलूसी cāplūsī

flattery in Tamil

தகாப் பாராட்டு, மிகைப் பாராட்டு, முகத்துதி, போலிப் புகழ்ச்சி, முன்னிலைப் புகழ்ச்சி, பொய்யானபுகழ்ச்சி

flattery in Urdu

flattery, cajoling, blandishment, blarney: تملق tamalluq
flattery: آلوک ālok

flattery in Telugu

excessive praise: ముఖప్రీతి mukhaprīti, ముఖస్తుతి mukhastuti

More languagesFewer languages

flattery in Malayalam: സേവ sēva
flattery in Kannada: ಮುಖಸ್ತುತಿ, ಹೊಗಳಿಕೆ, ಅತಿಶ್ಲಾಘನೆ, ಸ್ತೋತ್ರ
flattery in Gujarati: ખુશામદ khuśāmad
flattery in Odia: କାଣ୍ଡ kāṇḍa
flattery in Sanskrit: प्रेयस् preyas
flattery in Sinhala: ඉච්චාව iccāwa
flattery in Tagalog: pambobola

Examples of flattery in a sentence

I didn’t appreciate his particular brand of flattery.
They say that mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, but I still think I'm being mocked when he acts just like me.
I knew I was a princess and I did not need flattery to inflate my ego.

All 19 example sentences with flattery

Synonyms of flattery

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

sooth

All synonyms of flattery

Forms of flattery

Noun
plural	flatteries
Proper noun
plural	Flatterys

Plural of flattery: flatteries

Origin of flattery

From Middle English flaterye, flaterie, from Old French flaterie, from the verb flater (“to flatter”). By surface analysis, flatter + -y (forming abstract nouns).

Borrowed from Irish Ó Flaithre.

Words formed from flattery

Words that rhyme with flattery

Questions about flattery

What does flattery mean?: Flattery means excessive praise or approval, which is often insincere and sometimes contrived to win favour.
What is flattery in Hindi?: Flattery in Hindi is चापलूसी (cāplūsī). See Flattery meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is flattery?: Flattery can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce flattery?: Flattery is pronounced /ˈflæt.ə.ɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of flattery?: The plural of flattery is flatteries.

Words near flattery in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-flattery.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-flattery.wav.

Cite this entry: “flattery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flattery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.