what does tolerance mean

Tolerance means accepting or allowing the existence of something you dislike, disagree with, or find uncomfortable, without trying to attack, suppress, or control it.

Core meaning in everyday life

In a social or everyday sense, tolerance is:

• Willingness to accept people whose beliefs, habits, or identities are different from yours.

• Respecting someone’s right to think or live differently, even if you think they are wrong.

• “Accepting the existence of things you don’t like,” not things you already agree with.

A simple example: you might dislike a neighbor’s music taste or religious beliefs, but you don’t harass them, try to silence them, or deny their rights—you let them live their life while you live yours.

Important nuance: what tolerance is NOT

• It is not the same as approval or celebration; you can tolerate something and still personally disapprove of it.

• It is not “having no beliefs of your own”; you can hold strong convictions and still refuse to persecute or demean others.

• It is not limitless; societies often draw lines at things that cause clear harm (for example, violence).

One commenter summarized it as: you don’t have to “clap for it,” but you don’t try to control how others live as long as they’re not harming you or others.

Other common uses of “tolerance”

The word also has some more technical meanings:

• In health or drugs: “building tolerance” means your body becomes less responsive to a substance over time, so you need more of it to get the same effect.

• In engineering or manufacturing: a “tolerance” is the allowed difference from an exact measurement (for example, a part can be a little bigger or smaller and still be acceptable).

• In general: the ability to endure something difficult or unpleasant, like pain, stress, or cold (“pain tolerance,” “cold tolerance”).

Why tolerance matters today

In 2026, a lot of debates online and in the news—around politics, gender, religion, immigration, and culture—are really arguments about where the line of tolerance should be drawn. Some people feel pressured to “approve” things they only want to quietly allow; others feel that “tolerance” is used as a shield to excuse hostile or discriminatory attitudes.

At its best, tolerance is about “live and let live”: holding your own beliefs while protecting the basic dignity and rights of people who are not like you.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.