SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
lenient
adjective
Less strict or severe in judgment, discipline, or enforcement.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Less strict or severe
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topLenient does not necessarily mean careless: a person may intentionally relax a rule for good reasons.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See lenient in use
The tutor was lenient about the deadline after the library closed unexpectedly.
The coordinator was more lenient about a first-time paperwork error, allowing the student to correct it instead of applying the usual restriction immediately.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license