lenient

English

Etymology

From Latin lēniens, present participle of lēnīre (“to soften, soothe”), from lēnis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈliːniənt/, X-SAMPA: /"li:ni@nt/

Adjective

lenient (comparative more lenient, superlative most lenient)

1. Lax; tolerant of deviation; permissive; not strict.

   The standard is fairly lenient, so use your discretion.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     But in other points, as well as this, I was growing very lenient to my master; I was forgetting all his faults, for which I had once kept a sharp look-out. It had formerly been my endeavour to study all sides of his character; to take the bad with the good; and from the just weighing of both, to form an equitable judgment. Now I saw no bad.

Synonyms

• lax, permissive

Antonyms

• strict
• severe

Related terms

• lenience
• leniency
• lenity

Translations

tolerant; not strict

• Serbo-Croatian: popustljiv (sh)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宽大 (cmn) (kuān dà)

• Czech: shovívavý (cs) m
• Dutch: toegeeflijk (nl), tolerant (nl), mild (nl)
• Finnish: lempeä (fi)
• French: indulgent (fr), permissif (fr), laxiste (fr)
• German: nachsichtig (de)

• Indonesian: lunak (id)
• Italian: permissivo (it)
• Romanian: tolerant (ro) m and n, tolerantă (ro) f, indulgent (ro) m and n, blând (ro) m and n, îngăduitor (ro) m and n
• Russian: снисходительный (ru) (snisχodít'el'nyj), мягкий (ru) (m'áχkij), терпимый (ru) (t'erpímyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: tròcaireach (gd)
• Spanish: tolerante (es), laxo (es)

Noun

lenient (plural lenients)

1. (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.

External links

• lenient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• lenient in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• lenient at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Latin

Verb

lēnient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of lēniō