Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition or quality of being lenient; leniency. See Synonyms at mercy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Wiktionary
- n. leniency
- n. mercy
- n. forgiveness
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state or quality of being lenient; mildness of temper or disposition; gentleness of treatment; softness; tenderness; clemency; -- opposed to
severity andrigor .
WordNet 3.0
- n. mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant
Etymologies
- Latin lēnitās, from lēnis, soft; see lē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And here I must observe, that the Americans can no longer anticipate lenity from the English traveller, as latterly they have so deeply committed themselves.”
“But as Demeo told him, tu illum corrumpi sinis, your lenity will be his undoing, praevidere videor jam diem, illum, quum hic egens profugiet aliquo militatum, I foresee his ruin.”
“The man who was in the last degree amiable was to the last degree unyielding where conscience was concerned; the soul which was so tender had no weakness in it; his lenity was the divination of a finer justice.”
Literary Friends and Acquaintance; a Personal Retrospect of American Authorship
“The colored teachers who present themselves are examined with a great deal of "lenity," -- and some who cannot even spell, are placed in charge of the young.”
“It is even good policy to treat prisoners with the greatest lenity which is consistent with their safe-keeping.”
“The opposite of secret laws is openly specified, written down laws, and a strong form of that, which subsumes e.g. the rule of lenity and the prohibition on ambiguous criminal laws, is something like: nobody should be convicted of a crime unless it was unambiguously written in a law, which they could (at least in theory) read, that their behavior was criminal.”
“Despite the conclusions of other courts, the district court determined that, given those statutory construction arguments and the rule of lenity (since the CFAA is also a criminal statute), “authorization” is not exceeded just because the employee breaches her duty of loyalty to an employer.”
“Director's Favorite Line: "When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.”
The Wall Street Journal: Five Acts in the Summer of the Bard
“Justice Ginsburg rightly described this as overbroad, and she cited Court precedent that "ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity.”
“The opposite of secret laws is openly specified, written down laws, and a strong form of that, which subsumes e.g. the rule of lenity and the prohibition on ambiguous criminal laws, is something like: nobody should be convicted of a crime unless it was unambiguously written in a law, which they could at least in theory read, that their behavior was criminal.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lenity’.
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 160 more...
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phrontistery - l
from phrontistery.info
labarum, labefactation, labeorphily, labidometer, labile, lability, labiomancy, labret, labrose, labtebricole, lac, laccolith and 496 more...
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vocab 2
accrue, lenity, pellucid, smitten, implore, scrupulous, recalcitrant, melancholy, trudge, reverie, convivial, corrigible and 19 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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2007bee-r03
antioxidant, rambla, trafficking, volplane, sluice, jettison, insomnolence, egyptiac, claque, provincial, satisfice, trumpery and 95 more...
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Dictionary.com Words of the Days of 2002
1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008
asseverate, sentient, malapropos, agitprop, fiat, nimiety, surreptitious, pleonasm, abominate, discursive, countervail, myrmidon and 113 more...
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words to learn
savvy, clunky, recourse, lenity, caliper, clamp, transmutability, incapacitate, unprecedented, digitate, abatement, emolument and 12 more...
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-ity City
enmity, moiety, nemiety, propinquity, levity, lenity, probity, concinnity, serendipity, perspicacity, perspicuity, acuity and 55 more...
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Into the Wild
List of vocabulary words built while reading Into the Wild for summer reading.
7/10escarpment, amalgam, muskeg, derelict, cordillera, anomaly, posit, convivial, mien, inimical, credo, portage and 40 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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Just Words
underbelly, visceral, inflammatory, flagrant, bleared, befouled, decalogue, epigeous, furfur, preternatural, diffident, brackish and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lenity.
reesetee Ah, nothing like your general reminder not to rape and pillage to keep a person civilized. ;-) Oct 25, 2007
chained_bear "For when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom,
The gentler gamester is the soonest winner."
--Shakespeare, Henry V, I don't know what act or scene but I remember it well--the one when Bardolph is hanged, and Henry commands (reminds?) his troops not to rape and pillage across the French countryside--"and none of the French upbraided or abused with disdainful language..." Oct 25, 2007
yarb A more graceful word for leniency. Oct 24, 2007