Definition 1: Emotionally strong, intense, verging on anger; physically powerful and/or rapid.

Usage 1: People sometimes misprounounce the adverbial form of this word, "vehemently" as [vê-'hee-mênt-li] with the accent on the wrong syl-LA-ble. Note that in all of its manifestations—vehement (adjective), vehemence and vehemency (noun), and vehemently (adverb)—the accent always stays on the first SYL-la-ble, "vee."

Suggested usage: The first gist of "vehement" usually describes ardent (or overardent) reactions and words: "Gerard is issuing vehement denials, but the car was dented while he was driving it." The second is for physical actions: "Punching the keys vehemently doesn’t make the computer work any better, Mavis." The same word with the same connotations has a wide variety of uses.

Etymology: Middle English from Latin "vehemens," perhaps from vehere "to carry." The PIE root "wegh-" also gave the Latin vexare "to agitate" (literally, "to set into motion"), so "vehement" has several Latin ancestors that suggest being "carried away." "Wegh-" also is the source "vehicle," "convection," "voyage," and our own English "way." For more about PIE, read "How is a Hippo like a Feather" in yourDictionary's library. (We thank Professor Allana Elovson for suggesting today's word.)