1
Core meaning
A person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
Example
The ruler preferred sycophants who praised every decision.
sycophant
/ˈsɪkəfənt/ · SIK-uh-funtnoun
A person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
Use sycophant to express this relationship precisely: a person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
What sycophant Really Means
The word becomes easier to use when its closely related senses are separated and compared.
2
Common noun frame
Use this noun in a complete noun phrase, adding the complement that identifies what it refers to when needed.
Example
A true adviser offers criticism; a sycophant merely seeks favour.
3
Analytical distinction
Choose it when this exact concept matters; a related term may describe its cause, evidence, or opposite instead.
Example
Colleagues dismissed him as a sycophant after his effusive praise of the director.
Use sycophant Naturally
Notice how the surrounding noun or clause reveals the exact shade of meaning.
The ruler preferred sycophants who praised every decision.
A true adviser offers criticism; a sycophant merely seeks favour.
Colleagues dismissed him as a sycophant after his effusive praise of the director.
Precision Matters
Sycophant overlaps with several common words, but each carries a different emphasis.
sycophant
vs.Means a person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
adulation
Means excessive admiration, praise, or public devotion directed toward someone.
sycophant
vs.Means a person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
effusive
Means expressing approval, gratitude, or emotion with unusually great enthusiasm.
sycophant
vs.Means a person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
candid
Means honest, direct, and unguarded in expression.
sycophant
vs.Means a person who uses excessive flattery and obedience to gain favour or personal advantage from someone powerful.
detractor
Means a person who criticises or disparages someone, a claim, or a course of action.
Test sycophant in Context
The aide flatters a powerful person to obtain a personal benefit.
1
The minister valued honest disagreement, but the new aide behaved like a ___, praising every proposal in hopes of promotion.