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impatience
/ɪmˈpeɪʃəns/
inability to wait calmly
His impatience with the slow service caused him to leave the restaurant early.
He could not wait calmly for the service, so he left.
general
The quality of being unable or unwilling to wait; a lack of patience.
She spoke with visible impatience, tapping her foot on the floor.
She showed clear signs of not wanting to wait.
Often implies irritation or frustration when things take longer than expected.
general
Eagerness or haste to do something, sometimes to a fault.
His impatience to start the new project led to several errors.
His eagerness to begin caused mistakes.
Can have a positive connotation (enthusiasm) or negative (recklessness).
Collocations
show impatiencedisplay the quality of not wanting to waitwith impatiencein a manner that shows lack of patienceimpatience withlack of tolerance for a specific person or thing
Related Phrases
Pro Tip
Noun vs. Adverb
Remember that 'impatience' is a noun. If you want to describe HOW someone acts, use the adverb 'impatiently' (e.g., 'He waited impatiently').
Gold Rule
Collocation Check
Impatience is often followed by the preposition 'with' when specifying the cause (e.g., 'impatience with the delay').
Word Origin
From Old French 'impatience', from Latin 'impatiens' (unable to bear), from 'in-' (not) + 'pati' (to suffer/endure).
Usage Notes
Use 'impatience' when describing a person's emotional state regarding delays. It is a noun, so it cannot modify verbs directly (use 'impatiently' for that).
Word Breakdown
im-
not
prefixpatience
the capacity to accept or tolerate delay
rootEnglish Dictionary