What is another word for docility?

Pronunciation: [də͡ʊsˈɪlɪti] (IPA)

Docility refers to a willingness to be taught or controlled without resistance, which can be quite useful in many situations. There are several synonyms for the word docility that can be used to describe this quality in individuals or animals. One of the most common synonyms is compliance, which means following instructions or rules without question. Other synonyms for docility include obedience, submission, meekness, tractability, and submissiveness. These words all suggest a willingness to listen and follow guidance, without pushing back or causing trouble. Overall, docility is a valuable trait to have, particularly when working in a team or following the instructions of a leader or instructor.

Synonyms for Docility:

What are the hypernyms for Docility?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the hyponyms for Docility?

Hyponyms are more specific words categorized under a broader term, known as a hypernym.

What are the opposite words for docility?

Docility is defined as the quality of being obedient, submissive, or easily managed. The antonyms for this word, on the other hand, refer to traits that are more assertive, independent, or rebellious. Words such as independence, disobedience, obstinacy, and defiance are all antonyms for docility. These words suggest a personality type that is more resistant to being controlled or manipulated. While docility may be a desirable trait in certain circumstances such as in education or training programs, it may also be viewed negatively in situations calling for creativity and critical thinking. In such cases, the ability to challenge authority or think critically would be seen more favorably.

Usage examples for Docility

No observant person can fail to see what docility and intelligence kindness to any domestic animal is sure to elicit, while brutality and harshness induce only reluctant and inefficient service.
"Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia"
Maturin M. Ballou
"No." She spoke with the docility of exhaustion.
"The Lamp in the Desert"
Ethel M. Dell
But the veiled head bent over the child expressed nothing but complete docility.
"The Lamp in the Desert"
Ethel M. Dell

Famous quotes with Docility

  • What the state desires of education is soldiers, reliable voters, law-abiding citizens, contented working men, prosperous traders. Hence a spirit of docility and credulity, often of timidity, prevails in the school.
    Everett Dean Martin
  • One wonders at the docility of the students who evidently must be satisfied enough with the credentials to be uncaring about the lack of education.
    Jane Jacobs
  • As a man's conduct is controlled by public fact, so is her religion ruled by authority. The daughter should follow her mother's religion, the wife her husband's. Were that religion false, the docility which leads mother and daughter to submit to nature's laws would blot out the sin of error in the sight of Goddess. Unable to judge for themselves they should accept the judgment of father and husband as that of the church. While men unaided cannot deduce the rules of their faith, neither can they assign limits to that faith by the evidence of reason; they allow themselves to be driven hither and thither by all sorts of external influences, they are ever above or below the truth. Extreme in everything, they are either altogether reckless or altogether pious; you never find them able to combine virtue and piety. Their natural exaggeration is not wholly to blame; the ill-regulated control exercised over them by men is partly responsible. Loose morals bring religion into contempt; the terrors of remorse make it a tyrant; this is why women have always too much or too little religion. As a woman's religion is controlled by authority it is more important to show her plainly what to believe than to explain the reasons for belief; for faith attached to ideas half-understood is the main source of fanaticism, and faith demanded on behalf of what is absurd leads to madness or unbelief. Whether our catechisms tend to produce impiety rather than fanaticism I cannot say, but I do know that they lead to one or other. In the first place, when you teach religion to little girls never make it gloomy or tiresome, never make it a task or a duty, and therefore never give them anything to learn by heart, not even their prayers. Be content to say your own prayers regularly in their presence, but do not compel them to join you. Let their prayers be short, as Christ himself has taught us. Let them always be said with becoming reverence and respect; remember that if we ask the Almighty to give heed to our words, we should at least give heed to what we mean to say.
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Evidently, there is a political element in the attack on The Satanic Verses which has killed and injured good if obstreperous Muslims in Islamabad, though it may be dangerously blasphemous to suggest it. The Ayatollah Khomeini is probably within his self-elected rights in calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, or of anyone else for that matter, on his own holy ground. To order outraged sons of the Prophet to kill him, and the directors of Penguin Books, on British soil is tantamount to a jihad. It is a declaration of war on citizens of a free country, and as such it is a political act. It has to be countered by an equally forthright, if less murderous, declaration of defiance....I do not think that even our British Muslims will be eager to read that great vindication of free speech, which is John Milton’s . Oliver Cromwell’s Republic proposed muzzling the press, and Milton replied by saying, in effect, that the truth must declare itself by battling with falsehood in the dust and heat....I gain the impression that few of the protesting Muslims in Britain know directly what they are protesting against. Their Imams have told them that Mr Rushdie has published a blasphemous book and must be punished. They respond with sheeplike docility and wolflike aggression. They forgot what Nazis did to books … they shame a free country by denying free expression through the vindictive agency of bonfires....If they do not like secular society, they must fly to the arms of the Ayatollah or some other self-righteous guardian of strict Islamic morality. ['Islam's Gangster Tactics', in the London newspaper , 1989]
    Anthony Burgess
  • All successful bunko men come in time to believe the world, except for themselves, is populated with a race of human sheep who may be trusted to conduct themselves with true sheeplike docility.
    Dashiell Hammett

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