permissiveness en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree English permissive Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English permissiveness From permissive + -ness.
Meanings
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(uncountable) 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.
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:
Translations (1)
es permisividad (Translations)