Skip to content
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

tolerance

/ˈtɑ.lə.ɹəns/

Press play to hear how to pronounce tolerance.

American Pronunciation Guide · 0:55
Watch on YouTube ↗

What does tolerance mean?

noun

  1. The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.
  2. 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. Resistance to drunkenness.
More meanings (4)

noun

  1. The variation or deviation from a standard, especially the maximum permitted variation in an engineering measurement.
  2. The ability of the body to accept a tissue graft without rejection.
  3. (obsolete) The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.

verb

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

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈtɑ.lə.ɹəns/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Different plant species have varying degrees of root tolerance for lack of oxygen, but they all stop growing at some depth.
Steve SolomonGardening without irrigation : $b or without much, anywayProject Gutenberg ebook #4512
With all his apparent tolerance and good humor, there was a great deal of the arbitrary and despotic in Mr. Jefferson's nature.
Edward Sylvester EllisThomas Jefferson, a Character SketchProject Gutenberg ebook #712
More book examples (3)
That there is already such a growing tolerance no one who has talked with the leading white men in the South can doubt.
VariousThe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial IssueProject Gutenberg ebook #206
We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life.
United States. PresidentsUnited States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches: From Washington to George W. BushProject Gutenberg ebook #925
Vidal and the Ephemerides report several instances of tolerance of foreign bodies in the nasal cavities for from twenty to twenty-five years.
George M. (George Milbrey) Gould; Walter L. (Walter Lytle) PyleAnomalies and Curiosities of MedicineProject Gutenberg ebook #747