tolerant
Americanadjective
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inclined or disposed to tolerate; showing tolerance; forbearing.
tolerant of errors.
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favoring toleration.
a tolerant church.
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Medicine/Medical, Immunology.
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able to endure or resist the action of a drug, poison, etc.
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lacking or exhibiting low levels of immune response to a normally immunogenic substance.
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adjective
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able to tolerate the beliefs, actions, opinions, etc, of others
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permissive
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able to withstand extremes, as of heat and cold
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med (of a patient) exhibiting tolerance to a drug
Other Word Forms
- nontolerant adjective
- nontolerantly adverb
- overtolerant adjective
- overtolerantly adverb
- quasi-tolerant adjective
- quasi-tolerantly adverb
- self-tolerant adjective
- self-tolerantly adverb
- tolerantly adverb
Etymology
Origin of tolerant
First recorded in 1770–80; from Latin tolerant-, stem of tolerāns “bearing,” present participle of tolerāre “to bear”; tolerate
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.
“The U.S. energy business is going to have to get more risk tolerant and spread their wings outside the U.S.”
From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026
They were sympathetic to the concept—this was a liberal neighborhood, after all—and they were trying to be tolerant.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026
Importantly, the resonances remained stable even when the geometry was not perfectly optimized, showing that the design is tolerant of fabrication imperfections.
From Science Daily • Mar. 24, 2026
Others at Mr. Julian’s table gave similarly tolerant responses to my question about Mr. Paxton’s peccadillos.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
Their bodies would also become less tolerant of heat and cold, for Libra would not experience the extremes of temperature that we find in Alaskan winters or Arizona summers.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
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.
