Desire without passion, nominally (3)
I believe the answer is:
des
'nominally' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'desire without passion' is the wordplay.
'without' is a deletion indicator.
'passion' becomes 'ire' (ire is passionate anger).
'desire' with 'ire' taken away is 'DES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for des that I've seen before include "- O'Connor, Br. singer" , "and 9 Across: Former 'Countdown' host" .)