docile
/ˈdɑ.səl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.93 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Ready to accept instruction or direction; obedient; subservient.
adj
Yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management.
Example Sentences
- "With that he dropped his head again, lamenting over and caressing her, and there was not a sound in all the house for a long, long time; they remaining clasped in one another’s arms, in the glorious sunshine that had crept in with Florence. He dressed himself for going out, with a docile submission to her entreaty; and walking with a feeble gait, and looking back, with a tremble, at the room in which he had been so long shut up, and where he had seen the picture in the glass, passed out with her into the hall."
- "Harriet certainly was not clever, but she had a sweet, docile, grateful disposition; was totally free from conceit; and only desiring to be guided by any one she looked up to."
- "Such literature may well be anathema to those, who are too docile and petty for their own good."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-éye-ti Proto-Italic *dokejō Proto-Italic *dokeō Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō)sl. Latin doceō Proto-Indo-European *-elis Proto-Italic *-elis Latin -ilis Latin docilisder. Middle French docilebor. Middle English docyle English docile From Middle English docyle, from Middle French docile, from Latin docilis, from docēre (“teach”). Compare Portuguese dócil ("docile").
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *deḱ-, docyle, docile, docilis
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɑ.səl/
- British English: /ˈdəʊ.saɪl/
Inflected Forms
more docile (comparative)
most docile (superlative)