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lenient. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
lenient, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
lenient in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
lenient you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French lénient, from Latin lēniēns, present participle of lēnīre (“to soften, soothe”), from lēnis (“soft”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
lenient (comparative more lenient, superlative most lenient)
- 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
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
tolerant; not strict
- Belarusian: паблажлівы (pablažlivy), нястрогі (njastróhi), памяркоўны (pamjarkóŭny), 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)
- 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)
- Turkish: hoşgörülü (tr), müsamahakâr, müşfik (tr)
- Ukrainian: невимо́гливий (nevymóhlyvyj), виба́чливий (vybáčlyvyj)
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Noun
lenient (plural lenients)
- (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.
Further reading
- “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.
Latin
Verb
lēnient
- third-person plural future active indicative of lēniō