patience

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence
  2. noun a card game played by one person

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English pacience, from Old French pacience (modern French patience), from Latin patientia (“suffering; endurance, patience”), from patiens, present active participle of patior (“suffer, experience, wait”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hurt”). Displaced Old English ġeþyld.

In classic literature

Synonyms

forbearance, longanimity

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