passion
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A strong feeling or emotion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pashuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpæʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A strong feeling or emotion
Any great, strong, powerful emotion, especially romantic love or extreme hate.
An object of passionate or romantic love or strong romantic interest.
A true desire sustained or prolonged.
Fervor, determination.
A display, musical composition, or play meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.
verb
transitive
To give a passionate character to.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A strong feeling or emotion
Used this way, passion is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use passion
- “Her passion for art led her to become a successful painter.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The week before Easter.
Egg-shaped tropical fruit of certain passionflower vines.
Second Sunday before Easter.
A play representing the Passion of Christ.
The suffering of Jesus at the Crucifixion.
Cultivated for fruit.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
With passion.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.