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.
-
not rigidly exact or precise; vague.
lax ideas.
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open, loose, or not retentive, as diarrheal bowels.
-
(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
-
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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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.
See Examples For:
While many states require NIL agent registration, enforcement is lax and there is no unified certification program, which opens the field to practically anyone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, partly due to lax safety standards and unpredictable weather.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
Security at the bankrupt development was lax but oversight has since been improved, Petty said, with round-the-clock security guards, cameras, laser devices and tall metal walls topped with razor wire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
If employers are lax in their oversight, workers might find themselves overpaying to invest in funds that underperform.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
“Ministry blunders. . . culprits not apprehended. . . lax security . Dark wizards running unchecked. . . national disgrace. Who wrote this? Ah ... of course . Rita Skeeter.”
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Supporters say the laxer regime could encourage more companies to go public; investors, hungry for data on corporate performance, oppose less-frequent reporting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
More than two decades ago the country experienced what author Helen Gordon described as a "Saharan gold rush", fuelled in part by laxer regulations and a more stable political environment than some of its neighbours.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2025
And open-access publishers that charge authors to publish their work also have an incentive to publish as much as possible, which could lead to laxer quality control.
From Science Magazine ● May 31, 2024
Coinbase and other firms have argued that the U.S. should be friendlier to the industry and that clearer rules are necessary to help American crypto companies compete with exchanges in countries with laxer regulations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
If--as was always the case when civilisation advanced--the bond between lord and serf became laxer, the lord merely increased his luxury.
From Freeland A Social Anticipation by Theodor Hertzka
The move comes after an inquest into four deaths caused by drivers with failing eyesight saw a coroner call the UK's licensing system the "laxest in Europe".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2025
But as a rapidly gentrifying city with some of the highest income inequality in the nation — and in a state with some of the laxest gun laws — gang culture has changed.
From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2023
Today California has some of the laxest rules on the subject in the country.
From Economist ● Dec. 8, 2016
While the rest of my physique is mediocre by the laxest standards, I started adulthood with an exemplary foot.
From The New Yorker ● May 16, 2016
The African schism insisted on the laxest possible line of action, namely, to receive indiscriminately without proof of penitence.
From Confession and Absolution by Thomas John Capel
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.
