patience
pronunciation
How to pronounce patience in British English:
UK [ˈpeɪʃns]
How to pronounce patience in American English:
US [ˈpeɪʃns]
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- Noun:
- good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence
- a card game played by one person
Word Origin
- patience (n.)
- c. 1200, "quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering, etc.," from Old French pacience "patience; sufferance, permission" (12c.) and directly from Latin patientia "patience, endurance, submission," also "indulgence, leniency; humility; submissiveness; submission to lust;" literally "quality of suffering." It is an abstract noun formed from the adjective patientem (nominative patiens) "bearing, supporting; suffering, enduring, permitting; tolerant," but also "firm, unyielding, hard," used of persons as well as of navigable rivers, present participle of pati "to suffer, endure," from PIE root *pe(i)- "to damage, injure, hurt" (see passion).Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue. [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]Meaning "constancy in effort" is attested from 1510s. Meaning "card game for one person" is from 1816.
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. A hard piece of work exacts patience .
- 2. For their part , outsiders showed patience and ingenuity .
- 3. It is tempting to argue for patience .
- 4. But the quest for their patronage demands resolute patience .
- 5. He called hayes was stupid and patience .