Impatience

//ɪmˈpeɪʃəns// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of being impatient; lacking patience; restlessness and intolerance of delays; anxiety and eagerness, especially to begin something. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a dislike of anything that causes delay wordnet
  3. 3
    a restless desire for change and excitement wordnet
  4. 4
    a lack of patience; irritation with anything that causes delay wordnet

Example

More examples

"The audience showed their impatience by stamping of feet."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English impacience, from Old French impacience (modern French impatience), from Latin impatientia. By surface analysis, im- + patience.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.