Tolerate

How to spell tolerate

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tolerate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tolerate mean?

1. verbTo allow or endure something, especially something disliked or disagreed with, without interfering.

Tolerate in a sentence

• The manager refused to tolerate persistent lateness from her staff.

• Some houseplants tolerate low light far better than others.

Where does tolerate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb tolerare, which literally meant 'to bear', 'to endure', or 'to put up with a burden'. That verb is connected to the older root tollere, meaning 'to lift up' or 'to carry', so the original sense involved physically supporting a weight before it broadened into enduring hardship or discomfort. The past participle form toleratus is what gives English the familiar -ate ending seen in so many verbs taken from Latin. English adopted the word in the early sixteenth century, at first in the sense of enduring pain or suffering, and only later did it settle into the modern meaning of allowing something you may dislike. The same root survives in the noun 'tolerance' and the adjective 'tolerant', and remembering the single l and the unstressed -er- in the middle is the main spelling challenge.

How the word is built

• toler- (from Latin tolerare: to bear, endure)
• -ate (verb suffix)