Tolerance

Quick meaning: Tolerance is a noun meaning (uncountable, obsolete) The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.

Meaning

(uncountable, obsolete) The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.

More Meanings

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

Example Sentences

Near-synonym: forbearance

Our customers can generally accept ten times the tolerance which we can achieve in our machining operations.

Both [Ze'ev] Jabotinsky and [David] Ben-Gurion also wrote songs of praise to the Ottoman Empire, its tolerance toward ethnic minorities in general — and to Jews in particular — as well as to the democratic changes it was undergoing.

Word Forms

• tolerances
• tolerancing
• toleranced

Synonyms for tolerance

Depending on context, synonyms include toleration, forbearance, margin, allowance, leeway, permissiveness.

Antonyms for tolerance

Common opposites include intolerance, unpermissiveness.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include permissiveness, allowance, margin, leeway, toleration, sufferance.

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