lenient

English

Etymology

From Middle French lénient, from Latin lēniēns, present participle of lēnīre (“to soften, soothe”), from lēnis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːni.ənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

lenient (comparative more lenient, superlative most lenient)

1. Lax; not strict; tolerant of dissent or deviation.

   The standard is fairly lenient, so use your discretion.

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XVIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

     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
• forgiving

Antonyms

• strict
• severe
• stringent
• unlenient

Derived terms

• leniently
• overlenient
• superlenient
• ultralenient
• unlenient

Related terms

• lenience
• leniency
• lenity

Translations

tolerant; not strict

Belarusian: паблажлівы (pablažlivy), нястрогі (njastróhi), памяркоўны (pamjarkówny), спагадлівы (be) (spahadlivy) Bulgarian: снизходителен (bg) (snizhoditelen) Chinese: Mandarin: 宽大 (zh) (kuāndà), 宽松 (zh) (kuānsōng) Czech: shovívavý m Dutch: toegeeflijk (nl), tolerant (nl), mild (nl) Esperanto: malsevera Finnish: lempeä (fi) French: indulgent (fr), permissif (fr), laxiste (fr) Georgian: ლმობიერი (lmobieri) German: nachsichtig (de), milde (de) Greek: επιεικής (el) (epieikís) Indonesian: lunak (id) Italian: permissivo (it), tollerante (it), indulgente (it) Latin: clēmēns Macedonian: по́пустлив (pópustliv), сни́сходлив (sníshodliv) Maori: ngāwari Occitan: tolerant (oc), permissiu (oc) Plautdietsch: lind Portuguese: leniente (pt) Romanian: tolerant (ro) m or n, tolerantă f, indulgent (ro) m or n, blând (ro) m or n, îngăduitor (ro) m or n Russian: снисходи́тельный (ru) (snisxodítelʹnyj), мя́гкий (ru) (mjáxkij), терпи́мый (ru) (terpímyj) Scottish Gaelic: tròcaireach Serbo-Croatian: popustljiv (sh) Spanish: tolerante (es), laxo (es), leniente (archaic, Peru), de manga ancha Swedish: skonsam (sv) Thai: ปรานี (th) (bpraa-nii) Turkish: hoşgörülü (tr), müsamahakâr, müşfik (tr) Ukrainian: невимо́гливий (nevymóhlyvyj), виба́чливий (vybáčlyvyj)

Noun

lenient (plural lenients)

1. (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.

Further reading

• “lenient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lenient”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “lenient”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Latin

Verb

lēnient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of lēniō