lenient
adjective
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
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 Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847
a teacher who is lenient with students who have misbehaved
Many people felt that the punishment was too lenient.
Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 21 Jan. 2026
Even the most lenient parents often set boundaries on what their children watch.
—wendy Wisner, Parents, 17 Jan. 2026
However, unlike San Diego and Berkeley, whose regulations more or less match the strictest options the state Board of Forestry is considering, Los Angeles is pushing for a more lenient approach.
—Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2026
As the Giants seek a new head coach — their fifth since two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin’s departure 10 years ago — players are welcoming the idea of a strict leader after going 20-40-1 under the lenient Brian Daboll, who was fired in November midway through his fourth season.
—Dan Duggan, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for lenient
Cite this Entry
“Lenient.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lenient. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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