lax
1 Americanadjective
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not strict or severe; careless or negligent: a lax attitude toward discipline.
lax morals;
a lax attitude toward discipline.
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loose or slack; not tense, rigid, or firm: a lax handshake.
a lax rope;
a lax handshake.
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not rigidly exact or precise; vague.
lax ideas.
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open, loose, or not retentive, as diarrheal bowels.
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(of a person) having the bowels unusually loose or open.
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open or not compact; having a loosely cohering structure; porous.
lax tissue;
lax texture.
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Phonetics. (of a vowel) articulated with relatively relaxed tongue muscles.
noun
adjective
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lacking firmness; not strict
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lacking precision or definition
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not taut
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phonetics (of a speech sound) pronounced with little muscular effort and consequently having relatively imprecise accuracy of articulation and little temporal duration. In English the vowel i in bit is lax
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(of flower clusters) having loosely arranged parts
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lax1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin laxus “loose, spacious, wide”; akin to languēre “to be sluggish, faint, unwell”; cognate with Old English slæc slack 1
Origin of lax2
First recorded in 1970–75; la(crosse) ( def. ) + x 3 ( def. ) “a cross,” (in the sense cross ( def. ), a pun on crosse, the stick used in lacrosse)
Explanation
Those parents who let their kids eat all their Halloween candy the night of October 31st? Their parenting style might be described as lax. A paperclip chain used as a bike lock? That's an example of lax security. While contemplating the word lax, you may note that it's the same as the first syllable in laxative. This is not a coincidence: lax entered English as a noun describing a substance taken or administered to relax the bowels. Interestingly, the modern definition of lax is closer to the Latin source word, laxus — an adjective meaning "loose." Now, lax can refer to any phenomenon that is insufficiently stringent or so slack as to be basically ineffectual. For example, "The entire class performed incredibly well on the test, largely due to the sleepy professor's lax supervision."
Vocabulary lists containing lax
List 2
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And Then There Were None
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The report, which was reviewed by The Times, blamed the issue on lax oversight and confusion among officers about when they were required to turn on their cameras.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
Global corporate deals above $10 billion had their best quarter ever in Q1 2026, due in part to more lax antitrust policy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
Even though peptides can’t legally be used by compounders, many were dispensing the drugs because the FDA has been lax in enforcing its regulations.
From Salon • Apr. 4, 2026
Mark Neuman, chief investment officer at Hero Asset Management, said it should be possible to discover the identities of those who placed the trades in question, and suggested the problem resulted more from lax oversight.
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
His appointment indicated one thing: the government believed that discipline on the island was too lax, and that a strong hand was needed to keep us in line.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
