different between docile vs listless

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French docile, from Latin docilis, from docere (“teach”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d??.sa?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??.s?l/, /?d??.sa?l/

Adjective

docile (comparative more docile, superlative most docile)

1. Ready to accept instruction or direction; obedient; subservient.
2. Yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management.

Synonyms

• (ready to accept instruction): amenable, compliant, teachable
• (yielding to control): compliant, malleable, meek, submissive, tractable, manageable

Antonyms

• (yielding to control): perverse, defiant, rebellious, wilful

Derived terms

• docilely
• docility

Related terms

• docent
• doctor
• doctorate
• doctrinaire
• doctrinal
• doctrine
• document
• indoctrinate

Translations

Anagrams

• cleido-, coiled, coldie

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin docilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?.sil/
• Rhymes: -il

Adjective

docile (plural dociles)

1. docile

Derived terms

• docilement

Further reading

• “docile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

From Latin docilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?.t??i.le/

Adjective

docile (plural docili)

1. compliant, obedient, docile, meek

   Antonym: indocile

Derived terms

• docilità
• docilmente

Further reading

• docile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Adjective

docile

1. nominative neuter singular of docilis
2. accusative neuter singular of docilis
3. vocative neuter singular of docilis

English

Etymology

From Middle English lystles, equivalent to list (“desire”) +? -less. Compare Dutch lusteloos (“lethargic, listless”). Doublet of lustless.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?stl?s/

Adjective

listless (comparative more listless, superlative most listless)

1. Lacking energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, ch. 18:

     I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.

   • 1861, Charlotte M. Yonge, The Stokesley Secret, ch. 6:

     What an entirely different set of beings were those Stokesley children in lesson-time. . . . Poor, listless, stolid, deplorable logs, with bowed backs and crossed ankles, pipy voices and heavy eyes!

   • 1901, William Somerset Maugham, The Hero, ch. 21:

     The scene with Mrs. Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.

   • 2005 Nov. 29, Aryn Baker, "John Hardy: Bali Guy," Time:

     “Listless, inattentive, distracted,” he recited. “A daydreamer. Tries his best, but is too slow.”

Derived terms

• listlessly
• listlessness

Translations

Anagrams

• slitless