Patients and Patience

by Craig Shrives
The Quick Answer
What is the difference between patients and patience?

  • Patients are people receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.
  • Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.
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patience or patients?

Patients and Patience

The words patients and patience sound identical, but their meanings are very different.
(Note: patients and patience are homonyms, i.e., pronounced the same but with different meanings.)

Patients

The word patients is the plural of the singular patient. It is a noun that denotes a person receiving or schedule to receive medical treatment.

Examples:
  • We should be concerned not only about the health of individual patients, but also the health of our entire society.
  • Patients know in a heartbeat if they're getting a clumsy exam.

Patience

The abstract noun patience denotes the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. If someone demonstrates or has patience, they are described as being patient. In this sense, patient is an adjective so it is never written as patients.

Examples:
  • Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.
  • Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Interactive Exercise
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See Also

adverse or averse? affect or effect? appraise or apprise? avenge or revenge? bare or bear? complement or compliment? dependant or dependent? discreet or discrete? disinterested or uninterested? e.g. or i.e.? envy or jealousy? imply or infer? its or it's? material or materiel? poisonous or venomous? practice or practise? principal or principle? tenant or tenet? who's or whose?
What are adjectives? List of easily confused words