Word.ws English Dictionary

people-pleasing

people-pleasing noun: the behavioral pattern of prioritizing the needs and desires of others over one's own.

Noun

people-pleasing (countable and uncountable, plural people-pleasings)

  1. (informal) The behavioral pattern of prioritizing the needs and desires of others over one's own.
    • Repent of all people-pleasings then pick your peers with pride. Just ride the tide and enjoy life in your stride.2018, Karen Kellock, Just Skip Dinner, page 96

Forms of people-pleasing

pluralpeople-pleasings

Questions about people-pleasing

What does people-pleasing mean?
People-pleasing means the behavioral pattern of prioritizing the needs and desires of others over one's own.
What part of speech is people-pleasing?
People-pleasing is a noun.
What is the plural of people-pleasing?
The plural of people-pleasing is people-pleasings.

Words near people-pleasing in the dictionary

  1. people-people
  2. people-person
  3. people-persons
  4. people-pleaser
  5. people-pleasers
  6. people-pleasing
  7. people-pleasings
  8. people-pod
  9. people-pods
  10. people-smuggler
  11. people-smugglers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: people-pleasing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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