VEHEMENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vehemence mean? 

• VEHEMENCE (noun)
  The noun VEHEMENCE has 2 senses:

1. intensity or forcefulness of expression

2. the property of being wild or turbulent

  Familiarity information: VEHEMENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VEHEMENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intensity or forcefulness of expression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

emphasis; vehemence

Context example:

his emphasis on civil rights

Hypernyms ("vehemence" is a kind of...):

intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vehemence"):

overemphasis (too much emphasis)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of being wild or turbulent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

ferocity; fierceness; furiousness; fury; vehemence; violence; wildness

Context example:

the storm's violence

Hypernyms ("vehemence" is a kind of...):

intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vehemence"):

savageness; savagery (the property of being untamed and ferocious)

Derivation:

vehement (characterized by great force or energy)

 Context examples 

“Travel!” cried the woman, with extraordinary vehemence.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I would rather you had come and upbraided me with vehemence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This inflamed his rage; he repeated his threatenings, and turning to his companions, spoke with great vehemence in the Japanese language, as I suppose, often using the word Christianos.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“If there is a scoundrel on this earth,” said Mr. Micawber, suddenly breaking out again with the utmost vehemence, “with whom I have already talked too much, that scoundrel's name is—HEEP!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Both Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“That's for number one,” cried the accused, wiping the sweat from his brow, for he had been talking with a vehemence that shook the house.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

His mother, coming home, growled as she smelt the wolverine's track, and bounded into the cave and licked and nozzled him with undue vehemence of affection.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"Had they told me," he cried with vehemence, "that Mr. Palmer and all his relations were at the devil, it would not have turned me from the door. My business is with you, and only you."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This evil had been felt and lamented, at least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in Bath; and she was now fated to feel and lament it once more, for at the very moment of coming opposite to Union Passage, and within view of the two gentlemen who were proceeding through the crowds, and threading the gutters of that interesting alley, they were prevented crossing by the approach of a gig, driven along on bad pavement by a most knowing-looking coachman with all the vehemence that could most fitly endanger the lives of himself, his companion, and his horse.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)