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   Per·mis·sive

   /pərˈmisiv/

   

   adjective

   • 1. allowing or characterized by great or excessive freedom of behavior: "the permissive society of the 60s and 70s"
   • 2. allowed but not obligatory; optional: "the Hague Convention was permissive, not mandatory"
   • 3. allowing a biological or biochemical process to occur: "the mutants grow well at the permissive temperature"
   • ▪ allowing the infection and replication of viruses: "in vivo, viral expression is restricted but in vitro, cultured cells are permissive"

   Word Origin late 15th century (in the sense ‘tolerated, allowed’): from Old French, or from medieval Latin permissivus, from permiss- ‘allowed’, from the verb permittere (see permit1).

   Derivatives

   • 1. permissively adverb

   Scrabble Points: 17

   • P

     3

   • E

     1

   • R

     1

   • M

     3

   • I

     1

   • S

     1

   • S

     1

   • I

     1

   • V

     4

   • E

     1

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