Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
  • noun Leeway for variation from a standard.
  • noun The permissible deviation from a specified value of a structural dimension, often expressed as a percent.
  • noun The capacity to endure hardship or pain.
  • noun Physiological resistance to a toxin.
  • noun Diminution in the physiological response to a drug that occurs after continued use, necessitating larger doses to produce a given response.
  • noun Acceptance of a tissue graft or transplant without immunological rejection.
  • noun Unresponsiveness to an antigen that normally produces an immunologic reaction.
  • noun The ability of an organism to resist or survive infection by a parasitic or pathogenic organism.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being tolerant.
  • noun A disposition to be patient and indulgent toward those whose opinions or practices differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry or severity in judging of the opinions or conduct of others.
  • noun The act of tolerating; toleration.
  • noun In medicine, the power, either congenital or acquired, which an individual has of resistance to the action of a poison. Also toleration.
  • noun In minting, same as allowance,7. See also remedy, 4. Also toleration.
  • noun Synonyms . Catholicity, liberality.
  • noun 1 and
  • noun Tolerance, Toleration. Generally tolerance refers to the spirit, and toleration to the conduct. One may show toleration from policy, without really having the spirit of tolerance. See tolerate.
  • noun The capacity of a tree to endure shade.—6. In mech., an allowable amount of variation in the dimensions of a machine or part. A tolerance of.00025 of an inch is allowed above or below the exact dimension in fine machine parts.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The power or capacity of enduring; the act of enduring; endurance.
  • noun The endurance of the presence or actions of objectionable persons, or of the expression of offensive opinions; toleration.
  • noun (Med.) The power possessed or acquired by some persons of bearing doses of medicine which in ordinary cases would prove injurious or fatal.
  • noun (Forestry) Capability of growth in more or less shade.
  • noun (Coinage) the allowed amount of variation from the standard or from exact conformity to the specified dimensions, weight, hardness, voltage etc., in various mechanical or electrical devices or operations; -- caklled also allowance
  • noun (Biochemistry) the capacity to resist the deleterious action of a chemical agent normally harmful to the organism.
  • noun (Immunology) the acquired inability to respond with an immune reaction to an antigen to which the organism normally responds; -- called also immunotolerance, immunological tolerance, or immune tolerance. Such tolerance may be induced by exposing an animal to the antigen at a very early stage of life, prior to maturation of the immune system, or, in adults, by exposing the animal to repeated low doses of a weak protein antigen (low-zone tolerance), or to a large amount of an antigen (high-zone tolerance).
  • noun (Coinage) Same as Remedy of the mint. See under Remedy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disposition to allow freedom of choice and behavior
  • noun willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others
  • noun a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits
  • noun the power or capacity of an organism to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions
  • noun the act of tolerating something

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French tolérance, from Latin tolerantia ("endurance"), from tolerans, present participle of Latin tolerō ("endure").

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