permissiveness

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noun

The relative likelihood of something or someone to grant permission or allow something to happen.

“The permissiveness of campus life leads many college freshmen to try things they would never have experienced at home.”

Similar
tolerance
Opposite
unpermissiveness
UncommonScrabble 21
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Meanings

nounpermissiveness (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe relative likelihood of something or someone to grant permission or allow something to happen.

    The permissiveness of campus life leads many college freshmen to try things they would never have experienced at home.

    1 more example

    It is no accident that capital punishment is reentering our society on the wave of the conservative reaction to the permissiveness and laxity of the past two decades.

    1981 April 5, Theodore Solotaroff, “REVIVING THE ANCIENT ART OF EXECUTION”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 22 Sep 2025

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna disposition to allow freedom of choice and behavior

Similar
tolerance
Opposite
unpermissiveness
Broader
dispositiontemperament
Also see
hypertolerancetolerance

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From permissive + -ness.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Spanish permisividad
  • permisividadTranslations

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

impressiveness
Cite this entry
APA

permissiveness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/permissiveness

MLA

“permissiveness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/permissiveness. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “permissiveness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/permissiveness.

Source: permissiveness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.