Permissive

adj, noun

adj, noun ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A grammatical form indicating that an action is permitted by the speaker.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Giving permission, or predisposed to give it; lenient.

    ""Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force."

  2. 2
    Open to the public by permission of the landowner.
  3. 3
    That allows the replication of viruses.
Adjective
  1. 1
    granting or inclined or able to grant permission; not strict in discipline wordnet
  2. 2
    not preventive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
indulgentabandonedaccommodatingaccordantacquiescentadmissive

Example

More examples

"People gratuitously making fools out of themselves is a consequence of a pluralistic and permissive society."

Etymology

From French permissif.

Related phrases

permissive moodpermissive wastepermissive workingpermissive-action linkpermissive waste

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.