Synonyms of forbearance

forbearance

noun

fȯr-ˈber-ən(t)s 

1

as in patience

the capacity to endure what is difficult or disagreeable without complaining

we thank you for your forbearance while we attend to the technical difficulties interrupting the TV program

Synonyms & Similar Words

• patience
• tolerance
• sufferance
• long-suffering
• acquiescence
• willingness
• subordination
• discipline
• resignation
• passivity
• docility
• obedience
• compliance
• passiveness
• submission
• self-control
• tractability
• submissiveness
• amenability
• conformism

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• impatience
• defiance
• resistance
• disobedience
• insubordination
• willfulness
• recalcitrance
• intractability
• contrariness

2

as in mercy

kind, gentle, or compassionate treatment especially towards someone who is undeserving of it

the judge showed forbearance, and gave the teenaged first offender a suspended sentence

Synonyms & Similar Words

• mercy
• mercifulness
• empathy
• leniency
• compassion
• kindness
• clemency
• sympathy
• grace
• lenience
• lenity
• charity
• tenderness
• generosity
• goodness
• quarter
• pity
• understanding
• affection
• love
• gentleness
• magnanimity
• meekness
• goodwill
• humanitarianism
• benevolence
• kindliness
• altruism
• softness
• mildness
• philanthropy
• devotion
• favor
• nobility
• niceness
• worship
• commiseration
• humaneness
• care

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• ruthlessness
• retaliation
• vengeance
• retribution
• revenge
• punishment
• cruelty
• vindictiveness
• discipline
• reprisal
• violence
• virulence
• brutality
• barbarity
• savagery
• spite
• requital
• hatred
• sadism
• uncharitableness
• viciousness
• mercilessness
• chastisement
• truculence
• venom
• vitriol
• wantonness
• malice
• scolding
• hostility
• savageness
• hard-heartedness
• pitilessness
• castigation
• abhorrence
• meanness
• hate
• enmity
• loathing
• atrocity
• antagonism
• malignity
• resentment
• animosity
• detestation
• jealousy
• malevolence
• malignancy
• abomination
• bitterness
• antipathy
• execration
• maliciousness
• spleen
• grudge
• gall
• rancor
• jaundice
• nastiness
• bile
• pique
• harshness
• spitefulness
• hardness
• roughness
• coarseness
• hatefulness
• cattiness
• invidiousness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of forbearance

The mission could never have succeeded without the generosity and forbearance of Natives, and the spirit in which the explorers took their gifts was sometimes ugly. — Caleb Crain, New Yorker, 25 May 2026

If the assassination made the President a Christlike figure, his forbearance in the face of a wife’s unreasonableness provides him with an extra measure of purity. — Literary Hub, 21 May 2026

Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan, which was struck down by a federal court last month, have been in forbearance since July 2024 as a legal battle played out in courts. — Annie Ma, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2026

Borrowers who switched to the SAVE repayment plan were in forbearance status for almost two years, not making payments while the politicians battled it out. — Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026