Meaning of tolerance in English

tolerance

noun

/ˈtɒl.ər.əns/ us

/ˈtɑː.lɚ.əns/

tolerance noun (ACCEPTANCE)

(formal toleration, uk/tɒl.əˈreɪ.ʃən/ us/ˈtɑː.ləˈreɪ.ʃən/)

willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them:

This period in history is not noted for its religious tolerance.

Some members of the party would like to see it develop a greater tolerance of/towards contrary points of view.

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The book is essentially an exhortation to religious tolerance.
My father never showed much tolerance towards us children.
He asked for tolerance of his habits.
The two peoples lived together in mutual tolerance.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Open-minded

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tolerance noun (ABILITY TO DEAL WITH)

[ U ]

the ability to deal with something unpleasant or annoying, or to continue existing despite bad or difficult conditions:

My tolerance of/for heat is considerably greater after having lived in the Far East for a couple of years.

[ U ] biology specialized

an animal's or plant's ability not to be harmed by a drug or poison over a long period of time:

a greater tolerance of/to the drug

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tolerating and enduring

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Immunology & vaccination

tolerance noun (VARIATION)

[ C or U ] engineering, mathematics specialized

the amount by which a measurement or calculation might change and still be acceptable:

parts that are made to tolerances of a thousandth of an inch

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Calculations & calculating

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Measuring & weighing

(Definition of tolerance from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

tolerance | American Dictionary

tolerance

noun [ U ]

/ˈtɑl·ər·əns/

tolerance noun [U] (ACCEPTANCE)

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(also toleration, us/ˌtɑl·əˈreɪ·ʃən/)

willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from your own, even if you disagree with or disapprove of them:

religious/racial tolerance

There is zero tolerance of violence at this school – if you’re caught fighting, you’ll be suspended.

tolerance noun [U] (ABILITY TO BEAR)

the ability to bear something unpleasant or annoying, or to keep going despite difficulties:

I don’t have much tolerance for hot, humid weather.

(Definition of tolerance from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of tolerance

tolerance

It is, therefore, unclear which of these factors is directly linked to the tolerance-intolerance conversion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Examinations of tolerance levels indicate no serious multicollinearity between the independent variables.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Relative importance of photosynthetic traits and allocation patterns as correlates of seedling shade tolerance of 13 tropical trees.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, partial tolerance becomes the perfect alibi for generalized prejudice against the regional varieties and praise of the standard.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moving vernier in amblyopic and peripheral vision: greater tolerance to motion blur.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Even high speed cutting of light metal alloys should be possible with close tolerances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This feature in turn implies sampling in linear time, as soon as a positive tolerance on size is granted.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Effective treatment most often relies on nasal continuous positive airway pressure, but poor tolerance or compliance sometimes leads to treatment with oral appliances or surgery.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Farmers were asked to rate (as good, fair or bad) storage behaviour in terms of keeping quality and tolerance to insect pests.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Many factors will influence confidence in one's political attitudes, efficacy and tolerance, both positively and negatively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is particularly true if tolerance levels for entrance dose measurements were to be extended.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Without their tolerance, commitment and goodwill this work could not have been undertaken.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the central-north region it was ranked third, behind tolerance of marginal soils and of drought.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Most radiotherapy departments only repeated measurements where the initial reading was outside a set tolerance level.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, the highly restricted variance and skewed distribution of the flag burning item essentially guarantees that it will be somewhat independent of other tolerance measures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of tolerance

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with tolerance

tolerance

These are words often used in combination with tolerance.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

degree of tolerance

We have a degree of tolerance here.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

drought tolerance

These accessions scored between 3 and 5 for proportional soil cover, used to estimate drought tolerance in the late dry season.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

great tolerance

The field of semantics has always shown a great tolerance for divergence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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What is the pronunciation of tolerance?

What is the pronunciation of toleration?

Translations of tolerance

in Chinese (Traditional)

接受, 寬容, 忍受…

Meaning of tolerance in English

tolerance noun (ACCEPTANCE)

tolerance noun (ABILITY TO DEAL WITH)

tolerance noun (VARIATION)

tolerance | American Dictionary

tolerance noun [U] (ACCEPTANCE)

tolerance noun [U] (ABILITY TO BEAR)

Examples of tolerance

Collocations with tolerance

tolerance

Translations of tolerance

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