fervency
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of fervency
1375–1425; late Middle English < Late Latin ferventia ( see fervent, -ency); replacing fervence < Middle French < Latin ferventia
Explanation
Fervency is an intense, passionate feeling. Your fervency for your favorite football team is clear from the way you jump around and yell as you watch their games on TV. When you intensely adore someone, you love them with a kind of fervency. Other fierce emotions, especially warm, positive feelings, can also be called fervency, like your fervency for rescue dogs or the fervency of a preacher's Sunday sermon. The Latin root of this word means "to boil" or "to glow," so when you experience an emotion so passionate that you feel like you're glowing — that's fervency.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Much later, Corniel’s sister told her that after witnessing the fervency of that prayer, she knew that Corniel was going to eventually make it out on the other side.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2025
Scores of university students on Wednesday marched to the parliamentary chambers in the capital, Kampala, to thank lawmakers for enacting the bill, underscoring the fervency of the bill’s supporters.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 3, 2023
"They may not have the numerical advantage that they had 10 or 20 or 30 years ago," he said, "but it appears that what they lack in numbers, they're making up in fervency."
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2021
Of the characters, Holden wrote, “The Sicilians who discourse in the film, sometimes casually and sometimes in intense personal conversations, tend to speak in cadences that echo the fervency of Italian opera.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2020
On Sunday at chapel, she sang with a vigour and fervency that attracted to her the curious gaze of more than one pair of eyes.
From Mrs. Bindle Some Incidents from the Domestic Life of the Bindles by Hebert Jenkins
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