Describes a person, attitude, or treatment that is tolerant, forgiving, and not strict. Often used in formal or literary contexts.
He treats his subordinates with a lenient attitude.
This rule should be interpreted generously.
優しい describes warm, personal kindness, while 寛 conveys a more formal or principled leniency and tolerance.
厳格 means strict and rigorous, the opposite of the lenient, forgiving quality expressed by 寛.
The kanji 寛 originally depicts a house with a spacious interior, conveying the idea of roominess and, by extension, leniency and generosity. The reading かん is the on'yomi.
loose clothes; comfortable clothes
generous; largehearted; broad-minded
hipbone; innominate bone
acetabulum; cotyloid cavity