Tolerate implies that whatever you are "tolerating" isn't that bad and doesn't affect you greatly - and also that you do have an option to stop whatever it is, though you don't really want to do whatever it is to stop it. I.e. You're tolerating a child's misbehavior because you don't want to cause a scene in a shop. Endure implies that whatever you are "enduring" is quite uncomfortable and de-habilitating. i.e. You endured an illness. => You might tolerate a cold (not take medicine for it) but you would endure cancer (because despite having treatment you'd still be very ill) Endure is quite an archaic word though. You rarely hear it spoken, it's occasionally used in writing but usually only in styles of writing that are intending to sound archaic.