Meaning & use
patience
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Meanings
noununcountable
The ability to wait or deal with problems calmly without getting annoyed.
Grammar: Uncountable, no plural: have patience.
Patterns
- patience with someone
- lose patience
- have patience
Teaching small children takes a lot of patience.
He lost his patience with the slow computer.
Thank you for your patience while we fix the problem.
noununcountableBritish
A card game for one player, called solitaire in American English.
Grammar: British; usually with play.
Patterns
- play patience
She played patience on the train.
Grandpa always plays patience after supper.
He taught me patience with an old deck.
Common combinations
- lose patience
- She lost patience with the delay.
- try someone's patience
- The noise tried my patience.
- have patience
- Have patience; it will be ready soon.
- run out of patience
- I am running out of patience.
- patience of a saint
- You need the patience of a saint to teach him.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tolerance
- Tolerance is accepting people or behavior you may dislike.
- forbearance
- Forbearance is a formal word for holding back from anger.
- perseverance
- Perseverance is keeping going despite difficulty.
- calm
- Calm is a state of peace, not specifically about waiting.
Opposites
Word family
- patient adjective
- able to wait calmly
- patiently adverb
- in a calm waiting way
- impatience noun
- annoyance at delay
Commonly confused: patience or patients?
patience vs patients
Patients are people receiving medical care; patience is calm waiting. Both sound the same.
Practice
The teacher showed great ____ with the slower students.
Choose one answer.
Patience is the noun for calm tolerance; patients are sick people and patient is an adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “patience”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.