Obedient, docile, tractable, amenable, biddable mean submissive to the will, guidance, or control of another.
Though applied chiefly to persons, they are sometimes extended to things.
Obedient implies due compliance with the commands or requests of a person or power whose authority one recognizes or accepts. When applied to things it implies compulsion by a superior force or movement in accordance with natural law.
Docile implies a responsiveness to teaching, but it stresses either a predisposition to submit to guidance or control or an indisposition to resist impositions or to rebel against authority.
Tractable, which is nearly as often applied to things as to persons and animals, suggests success or ease in handling or managing.
Unlike docile, which in many ways it closely resembles, it seldom when applied to persons or animals implies a submissive temperament; thus, a docile child is always tractable, but a strong-willed child may prove tractable when he is wisely guided.
Amenable stresses a temperamental willingness or readiness to submit, not so much in the spirit of obedience as because of a desire to be agreeable or because of a natural openness of mind.
Biddable, a more homely word than docile, is used chiefly of children.