passion

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.
2. n. Ardent love.
3. n. Strong sexual desire; lust.
4. n. The object of such love or desire.
5. n. Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don't quite match his passion for the game.
6. n. The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.
7. n. An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He's been known to fly into a passion without warning.
8. n. The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.
9. n. A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus's sufferings.
10. n. Archaic Martyrdom.
11. n. Archaic Passivity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The state of being affected or acted on by something external; a passive as opposed to an active state.
2. n. Susceptibility of impression from external agents; receptivity to impressions.
3. n. Suffering; especially, the sufferings of Christ on the cross; more specifically, his sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper, sometimes distinguished from those of the crucifixion: as, “by thy Cross and Passion,” Book of Common Prayer.
4. n. Physical disorder, or suffering resulting from it; disease.
5. n. Emotion; specifically, intense or vehement emotion, occupying the mind in great part for a considerable period, and commanding the most serious action of the intelligence; an abounding or controlling emotion, such as ambition. avarice, revenge, desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred, etc.; a strong deep feeling.
6. n. Zeal; ardor; vehement or ruling desire.
7. n. Love; ardent affection; amorous desire.
8. n. Grief; sorrow.
9. n. Vehement anger; rage: sometimes used absolutely: as, in a passion.
10. n. An object of great admiration or desire; something indulged in, pursued, or cultivated with extreme and serious ardor: as, poetry became a passion with him.
11. n. A passionate display; an exhibition of deep feeling.
12. n. Same as passion-music.
13. n. Synonyms Passion, Affection; wrath, fury; fervor; rapture, transport. As compared with affection, the distinctive mark of passion is that it masters the mind, so that the person becomes seemingly its subject or its passive instrument, while an affection, though moving, affecting, or influencing one, still leaves him his self-control. The secondary meanings of the two words keep this difference.
14. To be affected with passion; be extremely agitated, especially with grief; sorrow.
15. To give a passionate character to; imbue with passion; impassionate.
16. n. In religious art, a representation of the passion of Christ: as, the greater and lesser passions of Albrecht Dürer.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any great, strong, powerful emotion, especially romantic love or hate.
2. n. Fervor, determination.
3. n. An object of passionate or romantic love or strong romantic interest.
4. n. sexual intercourse, especially when very emotional
5. n. Christianity The suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion.
6. n. A play, musical composition or display meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.
7. n. obsolete An innate quality, property, or attribute of a thing.
8. v. obsolete To suffer pain or sorrow; to experience a passion; to be extremely agitated.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A suffering or enduring of imposed or inflicted pain; any suffering or distress (as, a cardiac passion); specifically, the suffering of Christ between the time of the last supper and his death, esp. in the garden upon the cross.
2. n. The state of being acted upon; subjection to an external agent or influence; a passive condition; -- opposed to action.
3. n. rare Capacity of being affected by external agents; susceptibility of impressions from external agents.
4. n. The state of the mind when it is powerfully acted upon and influenced by something external to itself; the state of any particular faculty which, under such conditions, becomes extremely sensitive or uncontrollably excited; any emotion or sentiment (specifically, love or anger) in a state of abnormal or controlling activity; an extreme or inordinate desire; also, the capacity or susceptibility of being so affected
5. n. obsolete Disorder of the mind; madness.
6. n. Passion week. See Passion week, below.
7. v. rare To give a passionate character to.
8. v. obsolete To suffer pain or sorrow; to experience a passion; to be extremely agitated.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the suffering of Jesus at the Crucifixion
2. n. the trait of being intensely emotional
3. n. something that is desired intensely
4. n. any object of warm affection or devotion
5. n. a strong feeling or emotion
6. n. an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action
7. n. a feeling of strong sexual desire