lenient

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːni.ənt/

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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.

• lax
• permissive
• forgiving

• strict
• severe
• stringent
• unlenient

• leniently
• unlenient

• lenience
• leniency
• lenity

lenient (plural lenients)

1. (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.

• “lenient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “lenient”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “lenient”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

lēnient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of lēniō