tolerance
/ˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/
"tolerance" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tolerance” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,530 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,530
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tolerance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #6,530 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tolerance” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tolerance is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,530 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for tolerance, with forms such as "otlerance", "tloerance", and "toelrance". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "tolerate", "tolerant", "tolerances", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English toleraunce, borrowed from Old French tolerance, from Latin tolerantia (“endurance”), from tolerāns, present participle of, and participial adjective from Latin tolerō (“to endure”). The correct English form is tolerance, spelled T-O-L-E-R-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1The ability to endure pain or hardship; endurance.
- 2The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance of or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.
- 3The ability of the body (or other organism) to resist the action of a poison, to cope with a dangerous drug or to survive infection by an organism.
- 4The variation or deviation from a standard, especially the maximum permitted variation in an engineering measurement.
- 5The ability of the body to accept a tissue graft without rejection.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English toleraunce, borrowed from Old French tolerance, from Latin tolerantia (“endurance”), from tolerāns, present participle of, and participial adjective from Latin tolerō (“to endure”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: otlerance,tloerance,toelrance,tolearnce,toleracne,tolerancce,toleranec,tolerannce,tolerence,tolernace,tolerrance,tollerance,tolreance,ttolerance
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tolerance - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "tolerance"?
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Using “tolerance”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O-L-E-R-A-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtɒl.ə.ɹəns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tolerate” - see the side-by-side comparison. tolerance vs tolerate
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.