lenient

lenient
adjective

Synonyms of lenient
1
: of mild and tolerant disposition or effect : not harsh, severe, or strict
lenient laws
a lenient attitude
2
: exerting a soothing or easing influence : relieving pain or stress
leniently adverb


Did you know?
If you’ve ever had a peaceful, easy feeling—perhaps brought on by someone who you know won’t let you down—then you’ll have no problem understanding the earliest meaning of lenient. When it entered English in the mid-1600s, lenient described something soothing—such as a medication—that relieved pain or stress, or otherwise enabled someone to take it easy. For a brief window of time it was even used as a noun, referring to any of various ointments and balms that help heal wounds in the long run. Lenient comes from the Latin verb lenire, meaning “to soften or soothe,” which in turn comes from the adjective lenis, meaning “soft or mild.” The “soothing or easing” sense of lenient is still in use today, but English speakers are more likely to apply it to someone who is lax with the rules (as in “a lenient professor”), who doesn’t mind when someone acts like a certain kind of fool or takes it to the limit one more time.

Examples of lenient in a Sentence
By giving one more person—the executive—the power to reduce (but not to increase) punishments, our constitutions (both Federal and state) seem to be sending an important message: that in a world in which errors are inevitable, it is better to err on the side of overly lenient, rather than overly harsh, punishment.
—Alan M. Dershowitz, New York Times Book Review, 16 July 1989
He could trust himself, he said … to be more lenient than perhaps his father had been to himself; his danger, he said … would be rather in the direction of being too indulgent …
—Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903
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.
—Charlotte Bront;, Jane Eyre, 1847
a teacher who is lenient with students who have misbehaved
Many people felt that the punishment was too lenient.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Californians have pushed back on the rise in crime, most notably by recalling, in 2022, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a left-wing prosecutor who favored a lenient approach to criem.
—Jack Birle, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 2 Nov. 2024
In his four years as the district attorney in the nation’s second-largest city, progressive Gasc;n sought solutions for America’s mass incarceration dilemma that many deemed too lenient and said fueled lawlessness and led to crimes committed with impunity.
—Kevin Dolak, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Oct. 2024
In general, ancient Egypt had a more lenient perspective toward the legislative and legal position of women, but this was diminished in some capacity when the region became part of the Roman Empire in the first century B.C.E., Naether says.
—Elizabeth Djinis, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Oct. 2024
Others have accused Harris of going soft on criminals by approving lenient plea deals.
—Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2024