Meaning & use
the appeasement
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Meanings
noununcountabledisapproving
The policy of giving a powerful, demanding country what it wants in order to avoid war.
Grammar: Uncountable when naming the policy: appeasement failed. Use 'the appeasement of' before a person or group.
Patterns
- the appeasement of someone
- a policy of appeasement
Historians still argue about the appeasement of Hitler before 1939.
Critics called the treaty an act of appeasement rather than diplomacy.
The appeasement of an aggressive neighbor rarely keeps the peace for long.
noununcountable
The act of making someone calmer or less angry by giving them what they ask for.
Grammar: General, uncountable use; the person being calmed often follows with 'of'.
Patterns
- the appeasement of someone
- appeasement of a crowd
His quiet appeasement of the angry customer saved the deal.
The manager's appeasement of the staff only delayed the real problem.
Common combinations
- a policy of appeasement
- The government was accused of following a policy of appeasement.
- the appeasement of someone
- The appeasement of the rebels bought a few months of calm.
- criticize appeasement
- Newspapers criticized appeasement as a sign of weakness.
- appeasement fails
- When appeasement fails, the price is usually very high.
Synonyms and how they differ
- concession
- A concession is one thing you give up in a negotiation; appeasement is the whole policy of giving in to keep the peace.
- pacification
- Pacification means making people calm or defeating resistance; appeasement specifically means giving in to demands to avoid conflict.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: the appeasement or appeal?
the appeasement vs appeal
Appeal means to attract or to make a formal request; appease means to calm someone by giving in.
Practice
The history teacher described the 1938 agreement as an example of ______.
Choose one answer.
'Appeasement' is the noun naming the policy of giving in to avoid war. 'Appeal' is unrelated in meaning, and 'appeased' is a verb form, not a noun after 'of'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “the appeasement”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.