permissive

English

Etymology

From French permissif.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈmɪsɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

permissive (comparative more permissive, superlative most permissive)

1. Giving permission, or predisposed to give it; lenient.

   Synonyms: broad-minded, liberal, tolerant; see also Thesaurus:permissive, Thesaurus:lenient

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 3”, in Paradise Lost, lines 682–685; republished as John Bradshaw, editor, The Poetical Works of John Milton, 2nd edition, volume 2, London: William H. Allen & Company, 1885, page 85:

     For neither Man nor Angel can discern / Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks / Invisible, except to God alone, / By his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth;

   • 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: The collisions at Connington”, in Modern Railways, page 232:

     "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force.

   • 2026 March 4, Leonard Sax, “Permissive parents skew left, strict ones right — US parenting has become political like never before”, in New York Post‎^[1]:

     More to the point: 20 years ago, I did not perceive a political dimension to parenting. Some parents were too strict, some parents were too permissive and some parents were just right — and I saw no connection between parenting style and parental politics.

2. (of a footpath, bridleway or similar) Open to the public by permission of the landowner.
   • 2026 February 7, Leonie Helm, “"I’ve always loved a ‘permissive path’ – it’s always seemed like the nicest of invitations."”, in Countryfile‎^[2]:

     Many permissive paths work well and have done for a significant amount of time, enhancing or connecting our network of public footpaths, byways and bridleways, however unevenly distributed.

3. (biology) That allows the replication of viruses.

   Antonym: nonpermissive

Derived terms

• hyperpermissive
• impermissive
• nonpermissive
• overpermissive
• permissive-action link
• permissively
• permissive mood
• permissiveness
• permissive waste
• permissive working
• permissivism
• permissivist
• permissivity
• semipermissive
• unpermissive

Related terms

• permit

Translations

lenient — see also lax

• Bulgarian: разрешаващ (bg) (razrešavašt)
• Catalan: permissiu
• Dutch: verdraagzaam (nl), toegevend (nl), tolerant (nl), lankmoedig (nl)
• Finnish: salliva (fi), suvaitsevainen (fi)
• French: permissif (fr)
• Hungarian: engedékeny (hu), elnéző (hu), megengedő (hu)
• Italian: permissivo (it)
• Norwegian: tolerant
• Portuguese: permissivo (pt)
• Spanish: permisivo (es)

Noun

permissive (plural permissives)

1. (grammar) A grammatical form indicating that an action is permitted by the speaker.

Anagrams

• impressive

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛʁ.mi.siv/
• Rhymes: -iv
• Homophone: permissives

Adjective

permissive

1. feminine singular of permissif

German

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Adjective

permissive

1. inflection of permissiv:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Adjective

permissive

1. feminine plural of permissivo