lax

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /læks/ UK /læks/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like lex /ɛ/ vs /æ/ Sounds like lox /æ/ vs /ɑ/

Meanings

1

adj
not strict or careful enough; slack

Security at the warehouse had grown dangerously lax.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · not strict or careful... slack negligent careless remiss loose lenient relaxed

Opposites

strict rigorous stringent tight careful

Word family

Forms laxly

Derived forms laxlylaxnesslaxity

Related forms relaxlaxativerelaxation

Simplified etymology

Lax comes from Latin laxus, meaning “loose.”

Etymology

From Latin laxus ('loose, slack, wide'), from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)leg- ('to be slack, languid').

laxus Latin *sleg- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

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