What is another word for leniency?

Synonyms for leniency
le·nien·cy

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word leniency.

English Synonyms and Antonyms0.0 / 0 votes

  1. leniency

    Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving; forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill-deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended; mercy seeks the highest possible good of the offender. There may be mercy without pardon, as in the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where pardon would not be mercy, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely punishment might have saved. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have mercy. Clemency is a colder word than mercy, and without its religious associations, signifying mildness and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than clemency; we should speak of the leniency of a parent, the clemency of a conqueror. Compare PITY.

    Synonyms:
    benevolence, benignity, blessing, clemency, compassion, favor, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, kindness, lenience, lenity, mercy, mildness, pardon, pardon, pity, tenderness

    Antonyms:
    cruelty, hardness, harshness, implacability, justice, penalty, punishment, revenge, rigor, severity, sternness, vengeance

    Preposition:
    The mercy of God to or toward sinners; have mercy on or upon one.

Princeton's WordNet0.0 / 0 votes

  1. lenience, leniency, mildness, lenitynoun

    mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant

    Synonyms:
    clemency, gentleness, mildness, softness, lenience, lenity, indulgence

  2. indulgence, lenience, leniencynoun

    a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone

    "too much indulgence spoils a child"

    Synonyms:
    mildness, self-indulgence, foolery, pampering, lenience, tomfoolery, indulging, indulgence, humoring, lunacy, folly, craziness, lenity

  3. lenience, leniencynoun

    lightening a penalty or excusing from a chore by judges or parents or teachers

    Synonyms:
    lenity, indulgence, mildness, lenience

Matched Categories

Dictionary of English Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. leniencynoun

    Synonyms:
    clemency, mildness, lenity, mercy, tenderness, gentleness, forbearance

PPDB, the paraphrase database4.0 / 1 vote

  1. List of paraphrases for "leniency":

    clemency, indulgence, clémence, mercy, forbearance, complacency, letup, laxity

How to pronounce leniency?

How to say leniency in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#4043grace
#5455favor
#8158mercy
#11641blessing
#12537compassion
#14886pity
#15279kindness
#15356forgiveness
#17724pardon
#18098indulgence
#21891folly
#26713tenderness
#35273softness
#41023pampering
#42263complacency
#43547clemency
#44359benevolence
#49375lunacy
#49727indulging
#50293forbearance
#52299gentleness
#57260craziness
#74912leniency
#83418laxity
#114781tomfoolery
#123098clemence
#155933mildness
#180107foolery
#243923lenity
#286923humoring
#299128benignity

How to use leniency in a sentence?

  1. Alex Capri:

    No Chinese company can openly challenge the Chinese Communist Party and expect leniency.

  2. Alessandra Gonsales:

    The biggest challenge in relationship to the leniency agreements is judicial security for the companies.

  3. Ipsita Smolinski:

    The fact that the agency provided leniency on the home risk assessments is a good thing. However, fully phasing in the risk adjustment model could be detrimental to some plans.

  4. Hippocrates:

    it would not be a good impression that even the heads can be lax because of Company’s leniency

  5. Josh Hawley:

    The horror of child pornography is exponentially worse than it was a decade ago, and judges handing out lenient sentences for these criminals is a big reason why, while the White House continues to dismiss concerns about leniency toward child porn offenders as a ‘desperate conspiracy theory,’ the numbers speak for themselves. Congress must act before this problem becomes even worse.


Translations for leniency

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"leniency." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/leniency>.

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