fervency

American  

[fur-vuhn-see] / ˈfɜr vən si /

noun

1. warmth or intensity of feeling; ardor; zeal; fervor.

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fervency British  

/ ˈfɜːvənsɪ /

noun

1. another word for fervour

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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

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

“Hugh! Hugh! STOP!” the people with the flashbulbs scream, with such fervency you’d think they were trying to stop him from stepping in front of a bus.

From Washington Post • Mar. 13, 2023

The women teachers kept telling me I looked so pretty, and I felt, acutely, how lovely and embarrassing this all was, to be witnessed in the damp fervency of my love for this boy.

From Salon • Aug. 1, 2021

In a more general sense the word implies a peculiar fervency and earnestness in insisting on such doctrines as regeneration and redemption.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 3: Estremoz to Felspar by Various