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   permissive

   /pəˈmɪsɪv/

   adjective

   • 1. allowing or characterized by great or excessive freedom of behaviour: "a permissive parent"
   • 2. allowed but not obligatory; optional: "the Hague Convention was permissive, not mandatory"
   • ▪ denoting a path available for public use by the landowner's consent, not as a legal right of way: "using permissive footpaths, you can visit meadows on both the banks of the river"
   • 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

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     1

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   • M

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   • S

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   • I

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   • V

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   • E

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