My vocabulary is not too good. I mean I know a lot of words but I don't know a lot of their meanings. I looked up the word passion in the dictionary, and in one dictionary it lists "love or affection" as a definition, but I don't know if this is meant to be distinct from sexual desire or meant to signify other forms of love. My question is, in places where I would put the word love, can I instead put passion, or does passion only refer to sexual desire, in which case I cannot use the word? The English language does not seem to have too many synonyms that mean the same thing. Most of the time when I look up the meaning of synonyms, they mean different things. I am not sure why they are called synonyms then, or why they are grouped together, when many of them cannot be substituted for the others.
In essence yes, but passion isn't a full synonym for love... being passionate about or having a passion for something generally indicates a strong/keen interest in it - if someone writes that they are passionate about yachting they don't mean that they want to copulate with their yacht and have tiny dinghies together. Also in a religious book (which I assume you are writing from other threads) you invite confusion with the Passion of Christ (the late period of his life from entering Jerusalem up to the crucifixion) which has nothing to do with love and is derived from passionem - late latin for 'suffering'
Every word has different nuances. "Synonym" pretty much just means that it has a similar or closely related meaning. For that reason, it's never a good idea to assume that you can just swap in a synonym. It's not a good idea even if the dictionary definition suggests that the meaning is the same. This is why you need to read. Reading is the way to expand your vocabulary.
Heh, another potential can of worms. "Adoration" can refer to the guarding of the Eucharist where a team of parishioners sits in front of the tabernacle 24/7 to... actually I have no idea why they do that. Or why I'm commenting on one of zion's posts. I'll see myself out.
Can you give us an example? Put it in context? It really depends. “Passion” between people can either mean romantic love or sex. “Passion” for other things can mean you just like it a lot. For example, you can passionately love your spouse. You can passionately love your church. You can passionately love your country.
