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Mr. Tom Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary

Placate and Pacify

Hi

Could you please tell me if "placate" and "pacify" are essentially synonymous? Also, are they equally natural?

Placate the irate crowd...

Pacify the irate crowd...

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

Pacify is definitely more common than placate. I am sure some old scholar somewhere agrees there is a subtle difference, but as a graduate student in Speech/Language therapy, I can tell you I still don't think there is a difference, like so many thousands of English synonyms!

— Anonymous

  • Pacify is definitely more common than placate.
  • I am sure some old scholar somewhere agrees there is a subtle difference, but as a graduate student in Speech/Language therapy, I can tell you I still don't think there is a difference, like so many thousands of English synonyms!
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2 Answers
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Pacify is definitely more common than placate. I am sure some old scholar somewhere agrees there is a subtle difference, but as a graduate student in Speech/Language therapy, I can tell you I still don't think there is a difference, like so many thousands of English synonyms!
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Hi,

Could you please tell me if "placate" and "pacify" are essentially synonymous? No

Also, are they equally natural? Yes, in a suitable context

Placate the irate crowd...

Pacify the irate crowd...

pacify - the focus is on 'make the crowd peaceful'.

placate - the focus is on 'the crowd has some reas
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