permissiveness

/pərˈmɪsɪvnəs/

Permissiveness is a kind of freedom. Your family's permissiveness might mean that you don't have chores, a specific bedtime, or a curfew — unlike your friends with strict parents.

Sometimes people use this word to imply that there's too much lenience; they might talk about the permissiveness of schools nowadays, allowing students to use their phones in class or call teachers by their first names. When norms and rules change in a society, this often results in more permissiveness. It was once considered unseemly for women to wear pants, and changing fashions were seen as permissiveness. The Latin root, permittere, means "to let go or let loose."

Definitions of permissiveness

1. noun

   a disposition to allow freedom of choice and behavior
   synonyms: tolerance

   antonyms:

   unpermissiveness

   a lack of permissiveness or indulgence and a tendency to confine behavior within certain specified limits

   types:

   acceptance, sufferance, toleration

   a disposition to tolerate or accept people or situations

   indulgence, lenience, leniency

   a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone

   overtolerance

   too much permissiveness

   self acceptance

   an acceptance of yourself as you are, warts and all

   softness

   a disposition to be lenient in judging others

   type of:

   disposition, temperament

   your usual mood