compliment

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmpləmənt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmplɪmənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: complement

Borrowed from French compliment, itself a borrowing of Italian complimento, which in turn is a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from cumplir (“to comply, complete, do what is proper”) + -miento or Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complement. Displaced Old English ġeswǣsnes.

compliment (plural compliments)

1. An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.

   pay someone a compliment

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     […] I met him
     With customary compliment; when he,
     Wafting his eyes to the contrary and falling
     A lip of much contempt, speeds from me and
     So leaves me to consider what is breeding
     That changeth thus his manners.

   • 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 65:

     [...] what honour that,
     but tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
     So many hollow compliments and lies,
     Outlandish flatteries?

   • 1782, William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems‎^[1], London: J. Johnson, page 37:

     Virtue indeed meets many a rhiming friend,
     And many a compliment politely penn’d,

2. (uncountable) Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎^[2], London, page 25:

     He told the Captain, He was heartily sorry for his Misfortunes; tho’ in my Opinion that was nothing but a Compliment: For, as I found afterwards, he was more brutish, and dishonest, than most of the other Kings on the Island […]

   • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 48:

     This accomplished man condescended to think of a young girl, and take the pains to talk to her, not with absurd compliment, but with an appeal to her understanding, and sometimes with instructive correction.

3. Misspelling of complement.

• See Thesaurus:praise

• insult

Borrowed from French complimenter, from compliment + -er (verb-forming suffix).^[1]

compliment (third-person singular simple present compliments, present participle complimenting, simple past and past participle complimented)

1. (ambitransitive) To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).

   Antonym: insult

   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 457:

     […] She transferr'd the curs'd Advice, / That Monarchs ſhould their inward Soul diſguise, / Diſſemble, and command; be falſe, and wiſe; / By ignominous Arts for ſervile Ends / Should compliment their Foes, and ſhun their Friends.

2. Misspelling of complement.

• complement

From complir. Cf. also Spanish cumplimiento, Latin complementum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kum.pliˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [kom.pliˈment]

compliment m (plural compliments)

1. compliment

• complimentar
• complimentós

• “compliment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

Borrowed from French compliment, from Italian complimento, from Old Spanish cumplimiento.

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔm.pliˈmɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧pli‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

compliment n (plural complimenten, diminutive complimentje n)

1. compliment

• complimenteus

• → Papiamentu: kòmplimènt

Borrowed from Italian complimento, itself a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complément.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pli.mɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

compliment m (plural compliments)

1. compliment (positive comment)

• complimenter

• “compliment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from French compliment.

compliment n (plural complimente)

1. compliment