patience
1 Americannoun
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the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
- Synonyms:
- sufferance, submissiveness, self-possession, stability, composure
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an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.
to have patience with a slow learner.
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quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.
to work with patience.
- Synonyms:
- assiduity, persistence, indefatigability
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Cards (chiefly British). solitaire.
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Also called patience dock. a European dock, Rumex patientia, of the buckwheat family, whose leaves are often used as a vegetable.
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Obsolete. leave; permission; sufference.
noun
noun
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tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
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the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc
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US equivalent: solitaire. any of various card games for one player only, in which the cards may be laid out in various combinations as the player tries to use up the whole pack
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obsolete permission; sufferance
Related Words
Patience, endurance, fortitude, stoicism imply qualities of calmness, stability, and persistent courage in trying circumstances. Patience may denote calm, self-possessed, and unrepining bearing of pain, misfortune, annoyance, or delay; or painstaking and untiring industry or (less often) application in the doing of somehing: to bear afflictions with patience. Endurance denotes the ability to bear exertion, hardship, or suffering (without implication of moral qualities required or shown): Running in a marathon requires great endurance. Fortitude implies not only patience but courage and strength of character in the midst of pain, affliction, or hardship: to show fortitude in adversity. Stoicism is calm fortitude, with such repression of emotion as to seem almost like indifference to pleasure or pain: The American Indians were noted for stoicism under torture.
Other Word Forms
- superpatience noun
Etymology
Origin of patience
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English pacience, from Old French, from Latin patientia. See patient, -ence
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It requires restraint, patience and a willingness to confront ideas that don't affirm one’s own perspective.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026
Roche has chosen to provide an update as part of a wider desire within the club to ask for patience from their vast fanbase.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
Those pictures require patience, time, and pain to conjure on the part of the applicant.
From Slate • Mar. 20, 2026
He did not specify when that patience would run out.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
I could tell that Aunt Kitty’s well of patience was not particularly deep, so I quickly began fastening the tiny front hooks before she could start yanking and tying the back laces.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
