English Explanatory Dictionary

tolerance

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.
  2. The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.
  3. 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.
  4. The variation or deviation from a standard, especially the maximum permitted variation in an engineering measurement.
  5. The ability of the body to accept a tissue graft without rejection.
verb
  1. To design or engineer a material to a specified tolerance.

Pronunciation

/ˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/ /ˈtɑ.lə.ɹəns/ en-us-tolerance.ogg /ˈtɔl.ə.ɹəns/ [ˈtɔ̟l.ə.ɹəns]

Word forms

tolerance tolerances tolerancing toleranced

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English toleraunce, borrowed from Old French tolerance, from Latin tolerantia (“endurance”), from tolerāns, present participle of, and participial adjective from Latin tolerō (“to endure”).

Synonyms

toleration forbearance

Antonyms

intolerance

Related words

intolerance tolerability tolerable tolerant tolerate toleration

Derived words

aerotolerance autotolerance barotolerance Byzantine fault tolerance chaotolerance chronotolerance crosstolerance cryotolerance halotolerance heterotolerance homotolerance house of tolerance hypertolerance immunotolerance nontolerance osmotolerance paradox of tolerance phototolerance pseudotolerance psychrotolerance radiotolerance thermotolerance tolerance break trypanotolerance xenotolerance xerotolerance zero tolerance

Translations

Finnish: vastustuskyky
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