tolerance

UK: /ˈtɒlərəns/ US: /ˈtɑlərəns/ ,(tol′ər əns)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

tol•er•ance /ˈtɑlərəns/   n. 

1. a fair, open attitude toward people whose race, religion, practices, etc., differ from one's own:
   [uncountable] a long history of tolerance toward the beliefs of others.
2. the act of enduring or capacity to endure;
   endurance:
   [uncountable] My tolerance for noise is limited.
   [countable] a weak tolerance for the drug.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

tol•er•ance  (tol′ər əns), n. 

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own;
   freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own;
   a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
4. the act or capacity of enduring;
   endurance:
   My tolerance of noise is limited.
5. [Med., Immunol.]
   • the power of enduring or resisting the action of a drug, poison, etc.:
     a tolerance to antibiotics.
   • the lack of or low levels of immune response to transplanted tissue or other foreign substance that is normally immunogenic.
6. [Mach.]
   • the permissible range of variation in a dimension of an object. Cf. allowance (def. 8).
   • the permissible variation of an object or objects in some characteristic such as hardness, weight, or quantity.
7. Also called allowance.[Coining.] a permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coin, owing to the difficulty of securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.

• Latin tolerantia. See tolerant, -ance
• late Middle English 1375–1425

Synonyms

• 1, 2. patience, sufferance, forbearance; liberality, impartiality, open-mindedness.
  Tolerance, toleration agree in allowing the right of something that one does not approve.
  Tolerance suggests a liberal spirit toward the views and actions of others:
  tolerance toward religious minorities.
  Toleration implies the allowance or sufferance of conduct with which one is not in accord:
  toleration of graft.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

tolerance / ˈtɒlərəns/ noun

1. the state or quality of being tolerant
2. capacity to endure something, esp pain or hardship
3. the permitted variation in some measurement or other characteristic of an object or workpiece
4. the capacity of an organism to endure the effects of a poison or other substance, esp after it has been taken over a prolonged period