Synonyms for obsequious
- adjective
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Sycophantic — excessively eager and attentive to please or to obey instructions; fawning, subservient, servile
sycophantic, fawning, servile, unctuous, slavish, ingratiating, groveling, smarmy, insincere, courtly, slimy, flattering, oily, soapy, toadyish, truckling, fulsome, abject, buttery informal, ass-kissing vulgar informal, sucky slang
2. Deferential — obedient; compliant with someone else's orders or wishes
deferential, obedient, submissive, compliant, flexible, supple, yielding
Definitions
- adj. 1
Excessively eager and attentive to please or to obey instructions; fawning, subservient, servile.
- adj. 2
Obedient; compliant with someone else's orders or wishes.
Related words
- Word family
- obsequience obsequiosity obsequiously obsequiousness obsequity
Choose the right word
In many cases a man may be attentive or yielding in a high degree without any sacrifice of his dignity; but he who is obsequious seeks to gain favor by excessive and mean compliances for some selfish end.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Example sentences
- servile Tom is a servile man like Akaky Akakievich.
- unctuous They resented how his unctuous flattery tended to obtrude into serious meetings.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| obsequious | rising | |
| fawning | rising | |
| servile | steady | |
| sycophantic | rising | |
| unctuous | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- oily2
- 5 letters
- slimy2, soapy2, sucky
- 6 letters
- abject2, supple2, smarmy2
- 7 letters
- buttery3, fawning2, courtly2, servile2, slavish2, fulsome2
- 8 letters
- flexible3, yielding2, obedient4, unctuous2, toadyish
- 9 letters
- compliant3, insincere3, groveling3, truckling
- 10 letters
- flattering3, submissive3
- 11 letters
- deferential4, sycophantic4
- 12 letters
- ingratiating5
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (oily2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- obséquieux
- Italiano
- ossequioso
- Español
- obsequioso
- Deutsch
- unterwürfig