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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

docile.

Ready to accept instruction or direction; obedient; subservient.

6 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈdəʊ.saɪl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɑ.səl/US/ˈdɑ.saɪl/US
  1. Ready to accept instruction or direction; obedient; subservient.

  2. Yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management.

    Such literature may well be anathema to those, who are too docile and petty for their own good.
Where this word comes from

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").

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.