intolerance

UK/ɪnˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/US/ɪnˈtɑ.lə.ɹəns/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,686 of 15,258leans written

Intolerance is an unwillingness to accept difference. Religious intolerance, stamp out intolerance, intolerance of dissent.

The medical sense is quite separate and not a moral one: lactose intolerance means the body cannot process something, and it differs from an allergy in that the immune system is not involved. The prefix in- simply reverses tolerance.

Definitions of intolerance

1nounintoleranceAn unwillingness to accept difference.B2+
“The school teaches children that intolerance of other religions has no place in the classroom.”

intolerance is an attitude.

Where it comes from

Latin intolerantia comes from in-, not, plus tolerare, to bear or endure.

French
intolérance
English, today
intolerance

French intolérance, itself from in- + tolérance or borrowed from Latin intolerantia (“insolence, insufferableness; (very rare) intolerance”). by surface analysis, in- + tolerance.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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intolerance in the wild

Religious intolerance or religious bigotry is intolerance of another's religious beliefs, practices, faith or lack thereof.
Religious intolerance
Statements which are contrary to one's religious beliefs do not constitute intolerance.
Religious intolerance
Lactose intolerance is a lessened ability or a complete inability to digest lactose, a sugar found in dairy products.
Lactose intolerance
Primary lactose intolerance occurs as the amount of lactase declines as people grow up.
Lactose intolerance
The discovery of hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) as a clinical entity is credited to Chambers and Pratt, who first described the condition in 1956.
Hereditary fructose intolerance

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

tolerance

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