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Leniency is the quality of being lenient—permissive or merciful, as opposed to strict or harsh.

When you’re lenient with someone, you go easy on them. The word sometimes implies that maybe you’re going too easy, and should be more strict. On the other hand, if someone thinks a person is being too strict, such as when disciplining a child, they may tell them to be more lenient.

A person, an action, or a policy can show or have the quality of leniency. The word is especially used in the context of punishments, especially official ones like prison sentences. In this case, it’s often used to imply that such a punishment is not severe enough in the opinion of the speaker.

A less common variant of leniency is lenience.

Example: In my opinion, they’ve shown far too much leniency with his punishment—I think he’s getting off too easy.

The first records of the word leniency come from around 1780. It ultimately derives from the Latin verb ��ŧ��ī����, meaning “to soften, soothe, or alleviate” (��ŧ��ī���� comes from the Latin lenis, meaning “soft” or “mild”). Lenient was first used in the context of medical remedies to ease pain or discomfort. (The related word lenitive is still used in this sense.)

Today, leniency is most often used to refer to the mildness of a punishment. For example, people often criticize courts for showing too much leniency when giving short prison sentences for people who have committed violent crimes. Leniency often implies that a person is choosing to not strictly enforce rules in order to make things easier for someone. Grandparents are often known for having more leniency than parents when disciplining children (or not disciplining them).

What are some other forms of leniency?

• lenience (noun)
• lenient (adjective)

What are some synonyms for leniency?

• laxness
• permissiveness
• tolerance
• mercy

What are some words that share a root or word element with leniency?��

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• lenitive
• lenis

What are some words that often get used in discussing leniency?

• punishment
• sentence
• strict
• mercy
• rules
• discipline

Leniency is used in many different contexts, but most of them involve rules and punishment.

Despite recommendations from advocates that have urged leniency & prioritizing youths' health and safety amid the pandemic, a 15-year-old in Michigan was incarcerated in May after a judge ruled the teen violated probation by not completing her schoolwork.

— Sentencing Project (@SentencingProj)

How rare was the leniency that Barr sought for Roger Stone? Sentencing guideline calculations are complex, but in a year's worth of cases, the government only sought that kind of variance that in less than 2% percent cases:

— Sharon LaFraniere (@SharonLNYT)

As consumers across the country worry about how they’ll afford next month’s bills amid the pandemic, executives accused of bilking student-loan borrowers out of roughly $15.6 million are receiving leniency because of their financial circumstances.

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch)

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Which of the following words is an antonym (opposite) of leniency?

A. strictness
B. permissiveness
C. forgiveness
D. laxness