These words refer to a pleasant or tolerant manner, open to other people’s demands or desires. Compliant suggests a passive nature readily moulded to conform to the wishes of others, one easily persuaded with little effort: meekly compliant to even his harshest expectations. Suggestible is a less formal word for the same idea, but it has an additional implication indicating a naïve or unguarded sensibility that can be influenced even by subtle or indirect methods: The disapproved of showing such violence-ridden films to suggestible children.

Willing stresses a more conscious decision to do something and does not, unlike compliant or suggestible , suggest an innately weak or conforming nature: informing her that he would be willing to run the errand for her; willing , eager students. On the other hand, obliging refers not to a conscious choice but to a nature that is cheerfully ready to assist or that will permit someone else to satisfy a wish: an obliging stewardess; teenage girls who feel they must be obliging on dates or become unpopular. Agreeable stresses the cheerful side of obliging : an agreeable personality. It may also suggest anything that is simply pleasurable: an agreeable climate. But the word, in another use, can suggest an even more willing and open attitude than obliging : finding that she was agreeable to anything he suggested. Accommodating refers to people who are willing , obliging or agreeable in the sense of preparedness to do or supply what is wanted: In our search for local historical material the storekeeper was most accommodating .

Complaisant in one of its uses is simply a more formal term for agreeable or obliging , but with a greater stress on the conforming character suggested by complaint : her complaisant eagerness to please. The word has a special use, however, to suggest a cheerful or hypocritical indifference to strict moral standards, either in others or oneself: parents who are permissive and complaisant about their children’s behaviour. Broad-minded is in some ways a more informal substitute for complaisant in this context; it suggests a lax regard for moral standards, although it does not necessarily imply a cheerful attitude. In other contexts the word might suggest an admirable ability to see all sides of a question. Here, by contrast, it suggests, almost euphemistically, an ability to accept the misbehaviour of others without protest: parties that put a strain on the most broad-minded of her older friends.