Tolerated

How to spell tolerated

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce tolerated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tolerated mean?

1. verbAllowed something to exist or happen without interference, or endured something unpleasant without complaint.

Tolerated in a sentence

• The manager tolerated a few late arrivals during the snowstorm.

• She tolerated the noisy renovation next door for almost a year.

Where does tolerated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb tolerare, which meant 'to bear, to endure, or to put up with', and was related to the idea of carrying a weight or holding something up. Latin speakers used it both for physically supporting a load and for patiently enduring hardship, and that double sense of bearing a burden survives in the modern meaning. English took the verb 'tolerate' in the sixteenth century, partly through French and partly directly from the Latin past participle toleratus, and the form 'tolerated' is simply its English past tense. The same root sits behind 'toleration' and 'tolerance', and it is a distant relative of 'extol', which once meant to lift up. The spelling keeps a single l throughout, so the common slip is to wrongly double the l or to lose the faint middle vowel in 'tol-er-ated'.

How the word is built

• toler- (from Latin tolerare: to bear or endure)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle)