intolerable

/ɪnˈtɑlərəbəl/

/ɪnˈtɒlərəbəl/

If something is impossible to put up with, you can say it is intolerable. It would be intolerable if your neighbors played their terrible, loud music all night long.

Intolerable, tolerable, tolerate, tolerant, and even extol all share the same Latin root word tolerare, which means to bear. Intolerable couples that with the prefix in-, which means not, giving the word its unbearable meaning. The Intolerable Acts, for example, were laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. The American colonists found them unendurable, and they sparked support for the independence movement, which eventually led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Definitions of intolerable

1. adjective

   incapable of being put up with
   “an intolerable degree of sentimentality”

   synonyms: unbearable, unendurable

   impermissible

   not permitted

   bitter

   very difficult to accept or bear

   impossible, insufferable, unacceptable, unsufferable

   extremely unpleasant or annoying (of persons or their behavior)

   unsupportable

   not able to be supported or defended

   antonyms:

   tolerable

   capable of being borne or endured

   allowable, allowed, permissible

   that may be permitted especially as according to rule

   bearable, endurable, sufferable, supportable

   capable of being borne though unpleasant

   resistant, tolerant

   able to tolerate environmental conditions or physiological stress