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tolerance

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tahleruhns

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɑlɚəns

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. uncountable

    The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.

  2. uncountable

    The ability of the body (or other organism) to resist the action of a poison, to cope with a dangerous drug or to survive infection by an organism.

  3. uncountable

    The ability of the body to accept a tissue graft without rejection.

verb

  1. To design or engineer a material to a specified tolerance.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.

Used this way, tolerance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use tolerance

  • “Practicing tolerance helps create a more understanding community for everyone.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

fault tolerancezero toleranceglucose tolerancereligious tolerancetolerance testexercise tolerancegreater tolerancesalt tolerance

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • tolerableadjectiveDerived adjective

    Capable of being borne or endured.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • zero-tolerance policynounCompound term

    Any policy that allows no exception.

  • glucose tolerance testnounCompound term

    Test of the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates.

  • zero tolerancenounCompound term

    Extreme intolerance of antisocial behavior (usually by an uncompromising application of the law).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: ability or practice of tolerating

intoleranceTechnical

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.