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passion

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "passion", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "passion" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "passion" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

passion is aEnglishnoun. It means: A true desire sustained or prolonged. Pronounced /ˈpæʃən/. It ranks #3,382 in English word frequency. Often confused with pension and passive.

Key facts for passion
PropertyValue
Headwordpassion
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈpæʃən/
Letters7
Frequency rank#3,382
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of passion in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for passion is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpæʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,382 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for passion, with forms such as "apssion", "pasion", and "pasison". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "pension", "passive", "passions", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- Proto-Italic *patosder.? Proto-Indo-European *pet-der.? Latin patior Proto-Indo-European *-tisder. Proto-Italic *-tjō Latin -tiō Latin passiōbor. Old English passion ▲ Latin passiōbor. Old French passionbor. Middle … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is passion, spelled P-A-S-S-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A true desire sustained or prolonged.
  2. 2
    Any great, strong, powerful emotion, especially romantic love or extreme hate.
  3. 3
    Fervor, determination.
  4. 4
    An object of passionate or romantic love or strong romantic interest.
  5. 5
    Sexual intercourse, especially when very emotional.
  6. 6
    The suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion.
  7. 7
    A display, musical composition, or play meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.
  8. 8
    Suffering or enduring of imposed or inflicted pain; any suffering or distress.
  9. 9
    The state of being acted upon; subjection to an external agent or influence; a passive condition
  10. 10
    The capacity of being affected by external agents; susceptibility of impressions from external agents.
  11. 11
    An innate attribute, property, or quality of a thing.
  12. 12
    Disorder of the mind; madness.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- Proto-Italic *patosder.? Proto-Indo-European *pet-der.? Latin patior Proto-Indo-European *-tisder. Proto-Italic *-tjō Latin -tiō Latin passiōbor. Old English passion ▲ Latin passiōbor. Old French passionbor. Middle English passioun English passion From Middle English passioun, passion, from Old French passion (and in part from Old English passion), from Latin passio (“suffering”), noun of action from perfect passive participle passus (“suffered”), from deponent verb patior (“to suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hurt”), see also Old English fēond (“devil, enemy”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌰𐌽 (faian, “to blame”).

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: apssion,pasion,pasison,passino,passionn,passoin,pastion,ppassion,psasion

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for passion

Misspelling Variants of "passion"

apssion7pasion6pasison7passino7passionn8passoin7pastion7ppassion8
Misspelling Variants of "passion"

Frequency rank: #3,382 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "passion"?
"passion" is spelled P-A-S-S-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈpæʃən/.
What does "passion" mean?
As a noun, "passion" means: A true desire sustained or prolonged.
What words are commonly confused with "passion"?
"passion" is commonly confused with "pension", "passive", "passions". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "passion"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "passion" is /ˈpæʃən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "passion"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- Proto-Italic *patosder.? Proto-Indo-European *pet-der.? Latin patior Proto-Indo-European *-tisder. Proto-Italic *-tjō Latin -tiō Latin passiōbor. Old English passion ▲ Latin passiōbor. Old French passionbo... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.