Intolerable
adjective
So bad, harsh or severe that you cannot accept or bear it.
Work conditions were intolerable, so he quit his job.
Often appears as...
- intolerable pain
- intolerable conditions
Usage tips
General,Academic
adjective
So extreme or excessive that it cannot be endured or accepted.
The coach's favoritism towards specific players was intolerable.
Often appears as...
- intolerable bias
- intolerable pressure
Usage tips
Disapproving
Colloquial,Academic
adjective
So bad, harsh or severe that you cannot accept or bear it.
Work conditions were intolerable, so he quit his job.
Often appears as...
- intolerable pain
- intolerable conditions
Usage tips
General,Academic
adjective
So extreme or excessive that it cannot be endured or accepted.
The coach's favoritism towards specific players was intolerable.
Often appears as...
- intolerable bias
- intolerable pressure
Usage tips
Disapproving
Colloquial,Academic
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Weight
Conveys strong negative feelings; often used to describe extreme discomfort or dissatisfaction.
The heat in the desert was intolerable, sapping everyone's strength.
Pro Tip 2/3Subjective Experience
'Intolerable' varies per person, what is unbearable for one might be manageable for another.
I find her attitude intolerable, but you might not mind it.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Literal
Sometimes used hyperbolically for emphasis, not necessarily meaning something is literally unbearable.
Waiting another day for the results is just intolerable!
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Weight
Conveys strong negative feelings; often used to describe extreme discomfort or dissatisfaction.
The heat in the desert was intolerable, sapping everyone's strength.
Pro Tip 2/3Subjective Experience
'Intolerable' varies per person, what is unbearable for one might be manageable for another.
I find her attitude intolerable, but you might not mind it.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Literal
Sometimes used hyperbolically for emphasis, not necessarily meaning something is literally unbearable.
Waiting another day for the results is just intolerable!
Pro Tip 1/3Emotional Weight
Conveys strong negative feelings; often used to describe extreme discomfort or dissatisfaction.
The heat in the desert was intolerable, sapping everyone's strength.
Pro Tip 2/3Subjective Experience
'Intolerable' varies per person, what is unbearable for one might be manageable for another.
I find her attitude intolerable, but you might not mind it.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Literal
Sometimes used hyperbolically for emphasis, not necessarily meaning something is literally unbearable.
Waiting another day for the results is just intolerable!
Compare with
agonizebearableinsufferableinsupportableintolerantoppressivepainfulsustainableunacceptable
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Video examples
3 lessons on success...
or at a friends gathering, that, come on, you must know you're not a great mom, given how much you're investing in your career, right? I would lie if I said these words didn't hurt. My children are the most precious thing to me, and the thought that I could be failing them in any way is intolerable.
Video examples
What a Sea Snail Die-off...
that have done this for generations have to stop. - It's interesting, recently I was talking to some people and somebody made the comment, "Yeah, nature's gonna heal itself, "the question is will man go along with it or not, "or will he make the environment so intolerable for itself
Video examples
Bob Thurman: We can be...
of all the computers and everything, it's the forging of a mass awareness, of where everybody can really know everything that's going on everywhere in the planet. And therefore it will become intolerable -- what compassion is, is where it will become intolerable for us,
Video examples
Why we love, why we...
And I've also come to think that it's one of three basically different brain systems that evolved from mating and reproduction. One is the sex the craving for sexual gratification. W.H. Auden called it an "intolerable neural itch," and indeed, that's what it is.
Video examples
An Ode to Envy PIPE Parul...
Proust is trying to show us that jealousy feels intolerable and makes us look absurd, but it is, at its crux, a quest for knowledge, a quest for truth, painful truth, and actually, where Proust is concerned, the more painful the truth, the better.
Video examples
Marc Abrahams: A science...
The man had cut his finger, he worked processing chickens, and then he started to smell really, really bad. So bad that when he got in a room with the doctors and the nurses, they couldn't stand being in the room with him. It was intolerable.
Video examples
In the 19th Century,...
thing is people still didn't get on board with similar vices argument about this living matter but why there were a lot of reasons but one of them is that it was absolutely intolerable for a large number of physicians and obstetricians
Video examples
Is civility a sham? PIPE...
for good manners, for politeness, but at the same time, it's clear that to accuse someone of incivility is much, much worse than calling them impolite, because to be uncivil is to be potentially intolerable
Video examples
Funky Smelling Fruit PIPE...
milk a stench people in Asia find intolerable like cheese and France durian is precious in Southeast Asia some believe it's worth killing for durian trees don't bear fruit until
Video examples
Albatrosses Swallow...
throw away living may be profitable but the consequences are intolerable it's certainly a problem for everyone and it
Video examples
3 lessons on success...
or at a friends gathering, that, come on, you must know you're not a great mom, given how much you're investing in your career, right? I would lie if I said these words didn't hurt. My children are the most precious thing to me, and the thought that I could be failing them in any way is intolerable.
Video examples
What a Sea Snail Die-off...
that have done this for generations have to stop. - It's interesting, recently I was talking to some people and somebody made the comment, "Yeah, nature's gonna heal itself, "the question is will man go along with it or not, "or will he make the environment so intolerable for itself
Video examples
Bob Thurman: We can be...
of all the computers and everything, it's the forging of a mass awareness, of where everybody can really know everything that's going on everywhere in the planet. And therefore it will become intolerable -- what compassion is, is where it will become intolerable for us,
Video examples
Why we love, why we...
And I've also come to think that it's one of three basically different brain systems that evolved from mating and reproduction. One is the sex the craving for sexual gratification. W.H. Auden called it an "intolerable neural itch," and indeed, that's what it is.
Video examples
An Ode to Envy PIPE Parul...
Proust is trying to show us that jealousy feels intolerable and makes us look absurd, but it is, at its crux, a quest for knowledge, a quest for truth, painful truth, and actually, where Proust is concerned, the more painful the truth, the better.
Video examples
Marc Abrahams: A science...
The man had cut his finger, he worked processing chickens, and then he started to smell really, really bad. So bad that when he got in a room with the doctors and the nurses, they couldn't stand being in the room with him. It was intolerable.
Video examples
In the 19th Century,...
thing is people still didn't get on board with similar vices argument about this living matter but why there were a lot of reasons but one of them is that it was absolutely intolerable for a large number of physicians and obstetricians
Video examples
Is civility a sham? PIPE...
for good manners, for politeness, but at the same time, it's clear that to accuse someone of incivility is much, much worse than calling them impolite, because to be uncivil is to be potentially intolerable
Video examples
Funky Smelling Fruit PIPE...
milk a stench people in Asia find intolerable like cheese and France durian is precious in Southeast Asia some believe it's worth killing for durian trees don't bear fruit until
Video examples
Albatrosses Swallow...
throw away living may be profitable but the consequences are intolerable it's certainly a problem for everyone and it
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Eckhart Tolle
German Speaker
Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.
Quote examples
Tom Hodgkinson
British Writer
Once you explore life outside of work, it becomes addictive. The less you work, the less you want to work. At first, the odd afternoon off seems like a fantastic luxury. Before long, you are opting for a four-day week. Then a four-day week becomes an intolerable demand on your time, so you find a way of moving to a three-day week.
Quote examples
Jane Lynch
American Actress
That weird dark energy - when I was a kid, I didn't know what it was. I just had to 'thrash it out,' as my mother called it. I became quite intolerable, creatively and artistically, with other people. I wanted nothing more than to be part of a group, and yet I couldn't help alienating people.
Quote examples
Margo MacDonald
Scottish Politician
I know that there are people who believe that if they get to the stage where life is absolutely intolerable because of pain and indignity... they would like to end their life before nature intended, and we think they should have the choice to do so.
Quote examples
Wilfrid Laurier
Canadian Statesman
I would advise you to write, my dear friend, because with your active nature, solitude is simply intolerable to you, and after some time your solitude would become perhaps attractive if you were to people it with creatures of your own fancy.
Quote examples
Italo Calvino
Italian Journalist
The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the 'personality-cult' of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself.
Quote examples
Blaise Pascal
French Philosopher
Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.
Quote examples
Samantha Harvey
English Author
We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us.
Quote examples
Ursula K. Le Guin
American Writer
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Quote examples
Venerable Bede
English Clergyman
Purgatory fire will be more intolerable than all the torments that can be felt or conceived in this life.
Quote examples
Eckhart Tolle
German Speaker
Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.
Quote examples
Tom Hodgkinson
British Writer
Once you explore life outside of work, it becomes addictive. The less you work, the less you want to work. At first, the odd afternoon off seems like a fantastic luxury. Before long, you are opting for a four-day week. Then a four-day week becomes an intolerable demand on your time, so you find a way of moving to a three-day week.
Quote examples
Jane Lynch
American Actress
That weird dark energy - when I was a kid, I didn't know what it was. I just had to 'thrash it out,' as my mother called it. I became quite intolerable, creatively and artistically, with other people. I wanted nothing more than to be part of a group, and yet I couldn't help alienating people.
Quote examples
Margo MacDonald
Scottish Politician
I know that there are people who believe that if they get to the stage where life is absolutely intolerable because of pain and indignity... they would like to end their life before nature intended, and we think they should have the choice to do so.
Quote examples
Wilfrid Laurier
Canadian Statesman
I would advise you to write, my dear friend, because with your active nature, solitude is simply intolerable to you, and after some time your solitude would become perhaps attractive if you were to people it with creatures of your own fancy.
Quote examples
Italo Calvino
Italian Journalist
The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the 'personality-cult' of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself.
Quote examples
Blaise Pascal
French Philosopher
Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.
Quote examples
Samantha Harvey
English Author
We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us.
Quote examples
Ursula K. Le Guin
American Writer
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Quote examples
Venerable Bede
English Clergyman
Purgatory fire will be more intolerable than all the torments that can be felt or conceived in this life.
Example 1 of 10
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