lenient

From Middle French lénient, from Latin lēniens, present participle of lēnīre (“to soften, soothe”), from lēnis (“soft”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːni.ənt/

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lenient (comparative more lenient, superlative most lenient)

1. Lax; not strict; tolerant of dissent or deviation

   The standard is fairly lenient, so use your discretion.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     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. It had formerly been my endeavour to study all sides of his character; to take the bad with the good; and from the just weighing of both, to form an equitable judgment. Now I saw no bad.

• lax, permissive

• strict
• severe
• stringent

• lenience
• leniency
• lenity

lenient (plural lenients)

1. (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.

• lenient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lenient in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• lenient at OneLook Dictionary Search

lēnient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of lēniō