Choose the Right Synonym for ardent

impassioned, passionate, ardent, fervent, fervid, perfervid mean showing intense feeling. impassioned implies warmth and intensity without violence and suggests fluent verbal expression. an impassioned plea for justice passionate implies great vehemence and often violence and wasteful diffusion of emotion. a passionate denunciation ardent implies an intense degree of zeal, devotion, or enthusiasm. an ardent supporter of human rights fervent stresses sincerity and steadiness of emotional warmth or zeal. fervent good wishes fervid suggests warmly and spontaneously and often feverishly expressed emotion. fervid love letters perfervid implies the expression of exaggerated or overwrought feelings. perfervid expressions of patriotism

Examples of ardent in a Sentence

These ardent young nationalists, mostly still in their 20s and impatient for freedom, had acquired arms from sympathetic nationalist officers in the Indian army … — Gita Mehta, Vogue, April 1997 In fact, Gorbachev told me, a schoolboy essay he'd written on the virtues of Stalin was considered so ardent and exemplary that "for years thereafter other children were made to read it." — David Remnick, New Yorker, 18 Nov. 1996 During the fourth century, pagan piety in the upper classes became more elevated, more ardent, and more mystical. — Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993 made ardent declarations of love to the woman he someday hoped to marry an ardent science-fiction fan who has read virtually all of his favorite author's many works

Recent Examples on the Web As an ardent supporter of President Emmanuel Macron of France, Nicole Liot was all smiles after seeing him at a recent campaign stop. — New York Times, 20 Apr. 2022 She's been an ardent supporter of Biden, serving on the national finance committee of Joe Biden for President 2020, according to her website. — Scott Wartman, The Enquirer, 22 Mar. 2022 Cox is an ardent Trump supporter and enthusiastically took part in the former president’s attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election. — Bryn Stole, baltimoresun.com, 3 Mar. 2022 Pirtle is a partner in a farming business and an ardent supporter of gun rights. — Morgan Lee, USA TODAY, 31 Jan. 2022 Even the most ardent supporter of a political party likely has a dog or a cat — and plenty of smartphone photos to share. — Michele Merrell, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2022 Li Hongzhong, the Communist Party chief of Tianjin, is widely regarded as an ardent supporter of Chinese President Xi Jinping. — Steve George, CNN, 10 Jan. 2022 Nunes, a controversial San Joaquin Valley Republican and ardent supporter of Donald Trump, has left Congress to head a social media company created by the former president. — Justin Ray, Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2022 Café Roka is an ardent supporter of Arizona wines, carrying nearly 30 labels produced from grapes grown in the southeastern corner of the state. — Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 29 Dec. 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ardent.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for ardent

Middle English ardaunt, ardent "burning, fiery, passionate," borrowed from Middle French ardent, ardant, going back to Old French, borrowed from Latin ardent-, ardens "burning, fiercely hot, shining, eager, passionate," from present participle of ardēre "to burn, emit light or flame, be fiercely hot, be violently excited, be eager," derivative of āridus, ārdus "dry, waterless" — more at arid

Note: The assumption here is that the initial long vowel of āridus is shortened in ardēre, though this is uncertain. (Ernout and Meillet in Dictionnaire étymologique de langue latine marked it as long, though M. Leumann in Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre considered it to have been shortened.) Although derivation of ardēre from āridus seems likely on a morphological basis, the semantic relation is anomalous, as the verb is not a stative derivative of the adjective—the verb ārēre "to be dry, parched" already serves that function. The noun ardor is similarly anomalous. Most other stative verbs in -ēre paired with adjectives in -idus have a corresponding abstract noun ending in -ōr-, -or (originally *-ōs-, *-ōs), but the pair āridus/ārēre lacks a corresponding noun *āror. The derivative ardor does not provide it, as it means "burning, fierce heat," not "dryness" (though heat produces dryness, the implicit semantic connection).

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