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Synonym Chooser

How is the word fervent different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of fervent are ardent, fervid, impassioned, passionate, and perfervid. While all these words mean "showing intense feeling," fervent stresses sincerity and steadiness of emotional warmth or zeal.

fervent good wishes

When might ardent be a better fit than fervent?

While in some cases nearly identical to fervent, ardent implies an intense degree of zeal, devotion, or enthusiasm.

an ardent supporter of human rights

Where would fervid be a reasonable alternative to fervent?

While the synonyms fervid and fervent are close in meaning, fervid suggests warmly and spontaneously and often feverishly expressed emotion.

fervid love letters

When is impassioned a more appropriate choice than fervent?

The meanings of impassioned and fervent largely overlap; however, impassioned implies warmth and intensity without violence and suggests fluent verbal expression.

an impassioned plea for justice

When could passionate be used to replace fervent?

The words passionate and fervent can be used in similar contexts, but passionate implies great vehemence and often violence and wasteful diffusion of emotion.

a passionate denunciation

When would perfervid be a good substitute for fervent?

Although the words perfervid and fervent have much in common, perfervid implies the expression of exaggerated or overwrought feelings.

perfervid expressions of patriotism

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fervent Ten-time Grammy nom Monáe, an equally impressive singer-songwriter who has become a fashion industry darling, follows in Jones’ footsteps with her own fervent fan base. Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 7 May 2025 In the 17 years since that last tour — in support of Under the Blacklight, the major-label breakthrough that doubled as their final album — their fervent fanbase has only expanded, a fact that was painfully obvious at the Fremont on Monday evening. Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 6 May 2025 Fetterman voted for several of President Donald Trump’s nominees, like Attorney General Pam Bondi, and has been a fervent supporter of Israel in its war in Gaza against the terrorist group Hamas. Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 11 May 2025 But, whatever the White House and its most fervent allies insisted at the time, the Signal chat was a major embarrassment. The Editors, National Review, 2 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for fervent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fervent
Adjective
  • His passionate pursuit of public service, driven by principle and purpose and not self-aggrandizement, was Gerry’s secret sauce.
    Paul Laudicina, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
  • The wistful cover makes the case for focusing more on the ballad and less on the power, aspect associated with the passionate love song.
    Marina Watts, People.com, 30 May 2025
Adjective
  • One idea is that about a million years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled and underwent a phase transition, an event similar to how boiling water turns liquid into gas.
    Yasemin Saplakoglu, Scientific American, 3 Mar. 2020
  • If candy is still stuck on, pour more boiling water over whatever hasn’t come clean.
    Washington Post, Washington Post, 3 Dec. 2019
Adjective
  • And waters in the eastern subtropical Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean are warmer than normal for this time of year.
    Martin E. Comas, The Orlando Sentinel, 29 May 2025
  • But has life ever gotten better than a warm nighttime in the stands during a pitchers’ duel with a beer and a hot dog?
    Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 28 May 2025
Adjective
  • Peña said that because the physical changes to the third floor will be minimal, the new flea market should be open in the next couple of weeks — just in time to avoid Miami’s searing summer heat and sudden thunderstorms.
    Connie Ogle, Miami Herald, 21 May 2025
  • Pyroclastic clouds, or a dense mixture of ash, gas and rock dispersed during a volcanic eruption, caused a searing, rapid avalanche of debris to fill the home, Zuchtriegel said.
    Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 17 May 2025
Adjective
  • The lake has experienced issues with E. coli in some coves, and algal blooms can occur during hot summer months.
    Melissa Oyler, Charlotte Observer, 22 May 2025
  • His agents, while surprisingly capable, have also exposed new legal questions that await companies trying to capitalize on Silicon Valley’s hottest new technology.
    Paresh Dave, Wired News, 22 May 2025
Adjective
  • But a groundswell of protest art was answering the call with a new kind of ardent feeling that damned the false piety and hypocrisy of homophobic Christian doctrine.
    Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 22 May 2025
  • Most were, like O’Neil, young and ardent admirers of the actor, who at that point was between movies and had a different kind of creative itch to scratch.
    Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 18 May 2025
Adjective
  • Mud puddles are courageous, too, when returning the unblinking, burning gaze of the sky’s white eye.
    contributing Monitor poets, Christian Science Monitor, 23 Apr. 2025
  • Equal to Tesfaye’s navel-gazing, Shults uses every trick in the music-video playbook to conjure a vivid, ultra-saturated but not quite realistic universe where the Weeknd is a brightly burning sun everyone revolves around.
    Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 15 May 2025
Adjective
  • The auto-revive for solo players on Night Lords is to combat the intense difficulties of those fights where a single wrong move can be death.
    Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 31 May 2025
  • And, believe it or not, Europe does have air conditioning, which can be quite an intense shift when moving between the outdoors into coach buses or stores.
    Gregory Robinson, Travel + Leisure, 31 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Fervent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fervent. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.

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