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 judge whether this works.
'desire without passion' is the wordplay.
'without' is a deletion indicator.
'passion' becomes 'ire' (I've seen this before).
'desire' with 'ire' removed 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" .)