patience

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 native Old English ġeþyld.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪʃəns/

• Audio (US, Inland Northern American):

  (file)

patience (usually uncountable, plural patiences)

2. The quality of being patient.

   Synonyms: forbearance, restraint, thild, (obsolete, rare, or regional) thole

   Antonym: impatience

   Musical perfection requires practice and a lot of patience.

   I appreciate the patience with which you've explained it.

   • 1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 283:

     The most surprising thing was to discover that each job had its little tricks, peculiarities that had been learned in the experience of years, and one of the really pleasing features was the unlimited patience and kindliness of the chargehands and fitters, who would go to great lengths to teach the budding engineer all they themselves knew.

4. Any of various card games that can be played by one person. Called solitaire in the US and Canada.

• passion
• passionate
• passive
• passivity
• patient

• Sranan Tongo: pasensi

• “patience”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “patience”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• clock patience
• garden patience

Inherited from Middle French patience, from Old French pacience (modern English 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”).

• IPA^(key): /pa.sjɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

patience f (plural patiences)

1. patience (the quality of being patient)

   Antonym: impatience

   Il faut beaucoup de patience pour apprendre une nouvelle langue.

   Learning a new language requires a lot of patience.

• → Russian: пасья́нс (pasʹjáns, “solitaire (game)”)

• “patience”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

patience

1. alternative form of pacience

• pacience

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

patience f (uncountable)

1. patience (the quality of being patient)

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 native Old English ġeþyld.

patience (uncountable)

1. patience (the quality of being patient)
   • 1919, Sir Harry Lauder, Between You and Me‎^[1], New York: The James A. McCann Company, page 259:

     And I’ll be proving it, tae, if ye’ll ha’ patience wi’ me.

     And I’ll prove it, too, if you’ll be patient with me

• Eagle, Andy, editor (2025), “patience”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎^[2]