Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Inclined not to be harsh or strict; merciful, generous, or indulgent: lenient parents; lenient rules.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Softening; mitigating; assuasive.
- Relaxing; emollient; lenitive.
- Acting or disposed to act without rigor or severity; mild; gentle; merciful; clement.
- Synonyms Forbearing, tender. See leniency.
- n. An emollient; a lenitive.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relaxing; emollient; softening; assuasive; -- sometimes followed by
of . - adj. Mild; clement; merciful; not rigorous or severe
- n. (Med.) A lenitive; an emollient.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by tolerance and mercy
- adj. tolerant or lenient
- adj. not strict
Etymologies
- From Latin lēniens, present participle of lēnīre ("to soften, soothe"), from lēnis ("soft"). (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French, from Latin lēniēns, lēnient-, present participle of lēnīre, to pacify, from lēnis, soft; see lē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Robert Mugabe's cabinet, arose from his criticism of what he called lenient sentences imposed by a High Court judge on three American missionaries for possession of arms.”
“And remember, sometimes that mistake is being too lenient from the beginning.”
“Court reviews 'lenient' sentence for rape court in East China's Zhejiang province will rehear a controversial trial that handed down what the public called a lenient sentence to two”
WN.com - Articles related to Mafias expose China's legal woes
“He was severely reprimanded on more than one occasion for being too lenient - in other words, too gentlemanly - and finally my letters, received or written, which had been submitted to him for examination, were transferred to the detective Dennis, who, in order to seem vigilant in proportion to his former stolidity, returned me the simplest note, as being offensive to the canaille of the”
Documenting the American South: The Southern Experience in 19-th Century America
“With such individuals the proctor's sons were disposed to be lenient, which is certainly more than could be said if he himself had to deal with them.”
“And testing companies are businesses that compete with one another for contracts, so they know the benefits of providing favourable laboratory results and becoming known as the lenient lab, says Midler.”
“The sentences were shorter than the maximum penalty of two years, and were described as lenient by prosecutors.”
“The FACT is – we're partly in this whole mess because Congress (under Clinton) decided lendors should be pressed to use more "lenient" lending practices helping low-income people get into houses & mortgages they otherwise could not afford.”
“It's kind of hypocritical, considering how "lenient" they are with their own pedophile priests.”
“But the study found that achieving "lenient" control of fewer than 110 heart beats per minute was at least as effective in preventing death from cardiovascular causes, stroke and other life-threatening events.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lenient’.
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My woRdz...
layover, deet, etiquette, fondling, snog, dead letter office, lenient, severe, banter, grapple, sentiment, slacks and 1 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, abridge, abstemious, accent, accented, accolade, acquiesce, affirmation, amass, ambivalence, ambivalent, ambulatory and 154 more...
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kevinl's Words
indefatigable, dabble, befuddle, fin, infinity, might, futile, squirm, bookish, feint, liquidity, belt and 126 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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"letting go" words
words from the IE root orbh- and others words that change allegiance
orphan, robot, let, liege, allegiance, late, later, last, lassitude, alas, lenient, lenis and 41 more...
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MEC1 Lesson 114
statistics, series, successful, conceal, permit, concealed weapons..., if ever, file, under the gun, fear, round, 9-millimeter and 16 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL L
labyrinthine, lacerate, lachrymose, lackadaisical, lackey, laconic, lacteal, laggard, laggardly, laissez faire, laity, lambaste and 44 more...
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adjectives
veritable, pejorative, pertinent, benign, gullible, specious, delinquent, evocative, delirious, snippy, pithy, lenient and 69 more...
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SAT Vocabulary
Words I encounter.
manifest, lurid, lenient, iridescent, indecorous, uncouth, incumbent, implement, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, heinous and 51 more...
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2013-02-04
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Words
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