Meaning & use
forbearance
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountableformal
Calm patience that lets you hold back from anger or punishment when someone provokes or tests you.
Grammar: No plural and no article: she showed great forbearance.
Patterns
- forbearance with someone
- show forbearance
The teacher showed great forbearance with the noisy class.
We ask for your forbearance while the road is repaired.
Years of rude comments tested his forbearance.
noununcountablefinance
A lender's agreement to pause or reduce payments on a debt for a period instead of taking action against the borrower.
Grammar: A finance term, often used with agreement or plan.
Patterns
- forbearance on something
- a forbearance agreement
The bank granted a six-month forbearance on her mortgage.
He asked the lender for forbearance after losing his job.
Forbearance gives a borrower time but does not erase what is owed.
Common combinations
- show forbearance
- The judge showed forbearance toward the nervous witness.
- ask for forbearance
- The organizers asked for the audience's forbearance.
- great forbearance
- Raising twins requires great forbearance.
- forbearance agreement
- They signed a forbearance agreement with the bank.
- test someone's forbearance
- The long delays tested the passengers' forbearance.
Synonyms and how they differ
- patience
- Patience is the everyday word for waiting calmly, while forbearance stresses holding back when you have a reason to be angry.
- restraint
- Restraint stresses control over your actions, whereas forbearance adds kindness or tolerance toward the other person.
- tolerance
- Tolerance means accepting differences, while forbearance means putting up with a specific provocation.
- leniency
- Leniency is mildness in punishing, and is shown by someone with authority.
Opposites
Word family
- forbear verb
- to hold back from doing or saying something
- forbearing adjective
- patient and tolerant
Commonly confused: forbearance or forebear?
forbearance vs forebear
Forebear (also forbear) means an ancestor. It is different from forbearance, which is patience.
Practice
The tenant asked the landlord for ____ while he waited for his paycheck.
Choose one answer.
Forbearance means patient restraint or a pause in demanding payment. Foresight is the ability to plan ahead and does not fit the request.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “forbearance”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.