Why did the colonist refer to the coercive acts as the intolerable asts

That is because the intolerable acts was just the overall name of the multiple acts that were established by the British and the coercive act was one of them.

Explanation:

“the iliad” (gr: “iliás”) is an epic poem by the ancient greek poet homer, which recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the trojan war and the greek siege of the city of troy (which was also known as ilion, ilios or ilium in ancient times).