lax
UK/læks/
lax noun: a salmon. Also the clipping of laxative.
Noun (1)
lax (plural laxes)
- A salmon.
Adjective
lax (comparative laxer, superlative laxest)
- Lenient and allowing for deviation; not strict.
- The rules are fairly lax, but you have to know which ones you can bend.
- Society at that epoch was lenient, if not lax, in matters of the passions.1886, John Addington Symonds, Philip Sidney
- Synonyms:
- permissive, lenient, relaxed, clement, easygoing, forbearing, indulgent, loose-handed, permissible, remissful
- Antonyms:
- strict
- Loose; not tight or taut.
- The rope fell lax.
- The Fleſh of this ſort of [cartilaginous] Fiſh being lax and ſpungy, and nothing ſo firm, ſolid and weighty as that of the bony Fiſhes, and there being a good quantity of Air contained in the Cavity of their Abdomen, they cannot ſink in the Water without letting in ſome of it by theſe Holes (the...1701, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation, […], 3rd edition, London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, […], →OCLC, part II, page 355
- Lacking care; neglectful, negligent.
- The guard was paying no attention whatever to the running of his train, in total disregard of rules, and, as the recently-published report of a Ministry of Transport Inspecting Officer of Railways shows, there were other disquieting features in the case, such as ignorance on the part of responsible...1956 September, “Notes and News: The Barby Sidings Accident Report”, in Railway Magazine, page 638
- Prior to this match, Albion had only scored three league goals all season, but Wes Brown's lax marking allowed Morrison to head in their fourth from a Chris Brunt free-kick and then, a minute later, the initial squandering of possession and Michael Turner's lack of pace let Long run through to slot...2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 – 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport
- Synonyms:
- blameworthy, lash, negligent, remiss, reprehensible
- Describing an associative monoidal functor.
- Having a looseness of the bowels; diarrheic.
- (of a vowel) Produced with relatively little constriction of the vocal tract.
- Synonyms:
- slack
Noun (2)
lax (uncountable)
- lacrosse.
- “I'm not playing lax this term,” Mimah said.2010, Kate Kingsley, Pretty on the Outside, page 79
Proper noun (1) capitalized: LAX
LAX
- Los Angeles International Airport
- I have visited more than half a dozen carrier training facilities, spent over 150 hours on jumpseats, piloted a Lockheed 1011 from MIA to LAX, visited numerous towers, rapcons, and centers, and discussed our commercial Air Transport System with everyone involved.1975, John H. Reed, National Transportation Safety Board, Safety Information, page 30
- Fortunately, most of these were former French colonies, and through a combination of quiet diplomacy and well-placed French nationals in the various air-traffic-control centers, the 300-mile-long stream of American aircraft flew the width of Africa as uneventfully as a red-eye flight from LAX to...1994, Tom Clancy, Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 281
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Lax
Lax (plural Laxes)
- A surname.
Also used as
lax is also the clipping of laxative.
lax meaning in Hindi
lax in Hindi
- loose; not tight or taut
- ढीला ḍhīlā, शिथिल śithil
Examples of lax in a sentence
- After several days in the bush, he had grown lax with his barbering and needed a good shave before he was presentable again.
- As lax as the visitors' defence was, Blackpool's backline was solid.
- “One person is superstrict and unreasonable, another is just right and another is totally lax,” she wrote.
Synonyms of lax
- permissive
- lenient
- relaxed
- clement
- easygoing
- forbearing
- indulgent
- loose-handed
- permissible
- remissful
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of lax
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | laxes |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | laxer |
| superlative | laxest |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Laxes |
Origin of lax
From Middle English lax, from Old English leax (“salmon”), from Proto-West Germanic *lahs (“salmon”), from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz (“salmon”), from Proto-Indo-European *laḱs- (“salmon, trout”). Cognate with Middle Dutch lacks, lachs, lasche (“salmon”), Middle Low German las (“salmon”), German Lachs (“salmon”), Norwegian laks (“salmon”), Danish laks (“salmon”), Swedish lax (“salmon”), Icelandic lax (“salmon”), Lithuanian lašišà (“salmon”), Latvian lasis, Russian лосо́сь (losósʹ, “salmon”), Albanian leshterik (“eel-grass”). Doublet of lox.
Borrowed from Latin laxus (“wide, roomy, loose”).
By replacement of the syllable crosse with the cross-shaped letter x.
Words formed from lax
Phrases with lax
Words that rhyme with lax
Questions about lax
- What does lax mean?
- Lax means a salmon.
- What is lax in Hindi?
- Lax in Hindi is ढीला (ḍhīlā), शिथिल (śithil). See Lax meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lax?
- Lax can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce lax?
- Lax is pronounced /læks/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lax?
- The plural of lax is laxes.
Words near lax in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lax (page history and authors); LAX (page history and authors); Lax (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lax.ogg, en-au-lax.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lax.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lax. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.