Definitions

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

  • noun Tolerance with respect to the actions and beliefs of others.
  • noun Official recognition of the rights of individuals and groups to hold dissenting opinions, especially on religion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act. of sustaining or enduring; endurance.
  • noun The act of tolerating; allowance made for what is not wholly approved; forbearance.
  • noun Specifically, the recognition of the right of private judgment in matters of faith and worship; also, the liberty granted by the governing power of a state to every individual to hold or publicly teach and defend his religious opinions, and to worship whom, how, and when he pleases, provided that he does not thereby violate the rights of others or infringe laws designed for the protection of decency, morality, and good order, or for the security of the governing power; the effective recognition by the state of the right which every person has to enjoy the benefit of all the laws and of all social privileges without any regard to difference of religion.
  • noun A disposition to tolerate, or not to judge or deal harshly or rigorously in cases of differences of opinion, conduct, or the like; tolerance.
  • noun In medicine and physiology, same as tolerance, 3.
  • noun Same as tolerance, 4.
  • noun A license to gather oysters or operate oyster-beds. The fee is a toleration fee.
  • noun Synonyms See tolerance.

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

  • noun The act of tolerating; the allowance of that which is not wholly approved.
  • noun Specifically, the allowance of religious opinions and modes of worship in a state when contrary to, or different from, those of the established church or belief.
  • noun Hence, freedom from bigotry and severity in judgment of the opinions or belief of others, especially in respect to religious matters.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the tolerance of the beliefs or the culture of others
  • noun the official recognition of an individual's right to hold dissenting opinions, especially in religion
  • noun lenience or forbearance

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

  • noun official recognition of the right of individuals to hold dissenting opinions (especially in religion)
  • noun a disposition to tolerate or accept people or situations

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • No Wordies are tolerating toleration on their lists :(

    October 21, 2008

  • Probably because tolerance is so much nicer.

    October 21, 2008