- impassioned
- impassioned, passionate, ardent, fervent, fervid, perfervid mean actuated by or showing intense feeling.Impassioned, though applicable to persons, is more often found in reference to utterance or artistic expression or to the mood or mental state which evokes such utterance or expression. The word usually implies intensity without violence and feeling of such depth, sincerity, and potency that it passes naturally and inevitably from the person into his expression{
poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science— Wordsworth
}{the letters... are written by this master of impassioned recollection in a style so musical, so magical and moving, that the experiences he recounts become our own— L. P. Smith
}{as his impassioned language did its work the multitude rose into fury— Froude
}Passionate, on the other hand, implies vehemence and, often, violence of emotion; when the latter idea is suggested, the word also may connote loss of rational guidance or wasteful diffusion or misdirection of emotional power{a passionate denunciation
}{a passionate reformer
}{passionate partisanship
}{passionate feeling is desirable, provided it is not destructive— Russell
}{to match mere good, sound reasons, against the passionate conclusions of love is a waste of intellect bordering on the absurd— Conrad
}{the passionate and uncompromisingly ruthless war spirit, common to Communists and Fascists— Cohen
}Ardent differs from passionate largely in its freedom from derogatory implications and in its connotations of qualities suggestive of flame or fire. It is especially appropriate when vehemence is implied and the intense feeling expresses itself in eagerness, zeal, enthusiasm, or acts of devotion{an ardent desire for the truth
}{an ardent supporter of liberal ideas
}{an ardent lover
}{heredity in man is hardly the simple thing that many of the ardent eugenists would have us believe— Furnas
}{gave constant proofs of his ardent longing for an education— Merriman
}Fervent also implies a quality of fire, but it suggests a fire that glows rather than one that bursts into flame. Hence, though it implies strength and depth of feeling, it more often suggests steadiness than vehemence and inward quiet rather than outward activity. It is applicable especially to wishes, prayers, or hopes that are heartfelt or devout, but it is also applied to an emotion, or to a person feeling such an emotion, that is free from turbulence{fervent thanks
}{fervent good wishes
}{a fervent Christian
}{fervent prayers
}{Jane's feelings, though fervent, were little displayed— Austen
}{the gods approve the depth, and not the tumult, of the soul; a fervent, not ungovernable, love— Wordsworth
}Fervid, like impassioned; is applied more to moods and expressions than to persons; in contrast to impassioned, however, it sometimes suggests more obvious, more warmly expressed, and, often, more spontaneous emotion{who could help liking her? her generous nature, her gift for appreciation, her wholehearted, fervid enthusiasm?— L. P. Smith
}Frequently it carries a strong suggestion of feverishness which distinguishes it sharply from fervent; thus, fervent thanks suggest the depth and sincerity of the emotion which prompts them; fervid thanks suggest profuseness or an overwrought state of mind{his fervid manner of love-making offended her— Bennett
}Perfervid carries an implication of too great emotional excitement or of overwrought feelings; more than fervid, it casts doubt upon the sincerity of the emotion that is displayed with vehemence{to court their own discomfiture by love is a common instinct with certain perfervid women— Hardy
}{in his perfervid flag-waving moments— S. H. Adams
}Analogous words: vehement, *intense, fierce, violent: *deep, profound: *sentimental, romantic, maudlinAntonyms: unimpassionedContrasted words: dispassionate, uncolored, objective (see FAIR adj)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
