sycophancy.

Flattery and excessive agreement used to gain favour with a powerful person.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• political sycophancy
• reward sycophancy

On the page

A culture of sycophancy kept bad news from reaching the board.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.