/tol"euhr euhns/ , n.
1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance: My tolerance of noise is limited.
5. Med. , Immunol.
a. the power of enduring or resisting the action of a drug, poison, etc.: a tolerance to antibiotics.
b. the lack of or low levels of immune response to transplanted tissue or other foreign substance that is normally immunogenic.
6. Mach.
a. the permissible range of variation in a dimension of an object. Cf. allowance (def. 8).
b. the permissible variation of an object or objects in some characteristic such as hardness, weight, or quantity.
7. Also called allowance . Coining. a permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coin, owing to the difficulty of securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.
[ 1375-1425; late ME tolerantia. See TOLERANT, -ANCE ]
Syn. 1, 2. patience, sufferance, forbearance; liberality, impartiality, open-mindedness. TOLERANCE, TOLERATION agree in allowing the right of something that one does not approve. TOLERANCE suggests a liberal spirit toward the views and actions of others: tolerance toward religious minorities. TOLERATION implies the allowance or sufferance of conduct with which one is not in accord: toleration of graft.