Tolerance

Tolerance, in a social, cultural and religious sense, is the acceptance of other peoples who hold different and disagreeing beliefs, or otherwise represent ideologies or cultures that have a history of being disrespected. More generally the term is used with regard to behavior that is not mainstream/normal.

Tolerance is weaker than respect: a disagreeable party may still be disapproved of, and interaction may be limited to what is necessary, the disagreeable party is simply left undisturbed.

The term is also used with a more negative connotation with regard to unorderly conduct and small crimes; e.g. there may be a zero tolerance policy[?] towards drugs and violence.

See also intolerance, heresy, inquisition, prejudice, religious pluralism, freedom of religion, fat acceptance movement, grey area.

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In engineering, tolerance is an allowance made for imperfections in a manufactured object. For example, an electrical specification might call for a resistor with a nominal value of 100 ohms, but should also state a tolerance such as "+/- 1%". This means that any resistor with a value in the range 99 ohms to 101 ohms is acceptable. It would not be reasonable to specify a resistor with a value of exactly 100 ohms, because such a resistor cannot be made. It is good practice to specify the largest possible tolerance, to make manufacturing easier and to keep costs down.

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In physiology, tolerance occurs when an organism builds up a resistance to the effects of a substance after repeated exposure. This can occur with environmental substances such as salt or pesticides. It is also commonly encountered in pharmacology, when a subject's reaction to a drug (such as a painkiller or intoxicant) decreases so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect. See drug tolerance and tachyphylaxis[?].