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 Walker, an ardent Republican, is one of a handful of dignitaries speaking during the hearing with the subpanel considering H.R. 40, a piece of legislation pushing to create a reparations committee. — Stephanie Toone, ajc, "Herschel Walker argues ‘reparations teaches separation’ in Wednesday hearing," 17 Feb. 2021 The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima eroticized fascism and tried to inspire a coup. Schenker, who was born in Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was an ardent cultural Germanophile and given to dyspeptic diatribes. — New York Times, "Obscure Musicology Journal Sparks Battles Over Race and Free Speech," 14 Feb. 2021 All indications are that most of the ardent viewers were already anti-Trump: MSNBC narrowly edged CNN on cable with Fox News badly trailing. — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, "The Botched Democratic Effort to Convict Donald Trump," 13 Feb. 2021 These are blatant ideologues, yes, but even the most ardent zealot can be interested in what is in students’ best interest. — Grant Addison, Washington Examiner, "Frisco's folly," 11 Feb. 2021 Shultz remained an ardent arms control advocate in his later years but retained an iconoclastic streak, speaking out against several mainstream Republican policy positions. — Matthew Lee, Chron, "Reagan's longtime secretary of state George P. Shultz dies," 7 Feb. 2021 Shultz remained an ardent arms control advocate in his later years but retained an iconoclastic streak, speaking out against several mainstream Republican policy positions. — Arkansas Online, "Reagan's longtime secretary of state George P. Shultz dies," 7 Feb. 2021 Shultz remained an ardent arms control advocate in his later years but retained an iconoclastic streak, speaking out against several mainstream Republican policy positions. — Matthew Lee, The Christian Science Monitor, "George P. Shultz: An American titan of building global trust," 7 Feb. 2021 That was evident Thursday when hundreds of Trump supporters attended a rally in Cheyenne, Wyo., hosted by Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, an ardent Trump ally, to protest Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney’s vote to impeach the former president. — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, "What riot? Amnesia sets in among Republicans in Washington," 30 Jan. 2021

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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