Passion

How to spell passion

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce passion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does passion mean?

1. nounA powerful, barely controllable emotion, or an intense enthusiasm for something.

Passion in a sentence

• She pursued her passion for photography every weekend.

• He spoke about climate policy with real passion.

Where does passion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Passion comes from the Latin verb pati, meaning 'to suffer' or 'to endure', through its past participle stem pass-. From this came the Late Latin noun passio, literally 'a suffering' or 'an undergoing'. The word entered English in the twelfth century by way of Old French, where it first referred specifically to the suffering of Christ on the cross, a religious sense still preserved in phrases like the Passion of Christ and in 'Passion plays'. Over time the idea of strong, overwhelming feeling broadened the word so that any intense emotion, whether anger, love, or eager enthusiasm, could be called a passion. The very same root pati survives in the modern words 'patient' (one who endures) and 'compassion' (suffering alongside another), which is a useful reminder that the spelling carries the double 's' from that ancient pass- stem.

How the word is built

• pass- (from Latin pati: to suffer, endure)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)