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Kanji for Passion

The kanji most commonly used for "Passion" are 情、熱.

Kanji that mean Passion

  • emotion, love

    Also associated with truth.

    Onyomi: joh, sei Kunyomi: nasa.ke 11 strokes Jōyō

  • heat, fever, hot

    Onyomi: netsu Kunyomi: atsu.i 15 strokes Jōyō

情熱 (jōnetsu) — passion — is feeling plus heat, and the halves say it all. 情 (jō / nasake) is feeling itself: emotion, sympathy, the warmth between people. It ranges wide — 愛情 (love), 友情 (friendship), 人情 (human kindness) — and in 情け it is mercy: the samurai virtue of 武士の情け, the warrior’s compassion.

熱 (netsu / atsui) is heat — literal fever (熱がある, to run a temperature) and the metaphorical burn: 熱心 is enthusiasm (“hot heart”), 熱中 is being absorbed, and a 熱い人 is a person who burns for things. Sports commentary, band interviews and school mottoes all run on 熱.

Where English “passion” tilts romantic, 情熱 tilts vocational: the passion of the artisan, the athlete, the researcher. For the romantic register Japanese reaches for 恋 (longing love) or 焦がれる — to be scorched with yearning; the metaphor of fire holds either way.

Words using Passion kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

  • 事情 じじょう Listen circumstances; conditions; situation
  • 熱心 ねっしん Listen zealous; enthusiastic; ardent
  • 情報 じょうほう Listen information; news; report
  • 熱帯 ねったい Listen tropics
  • 表情 ひょうじょう Listen facial expression; countenance; look
  • 情熱 じょうねつ Listen passion; enthusiasm; zeal
  • 実情 じつじょう Listen real condition; actual circumstances; actual state of affairs
  • 熱意 ねつい Listen zeal; enthusiasm; ardor
  • 感情 かんじょう Listen emotion; feeling; feelings

Before you use Passion kanji

情熱 in full is the word — passion as burning dedication, and it reads admiringly. 熱 alone is a strong minimal pick ("heat/fervour"), though it also just means fever. 情 alone reads as "feeling/mercy" — gentler than intended. If the passion is romantic, 恋 says that specifically; the fire metaphor 炎 (flame) is the visual alternative.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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