Passive Definition
păsĭv
passives
adjective
Influenced or acted upon without exerting influence or acting in return; inactive, but acted upon.
Webster's New World
Receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in return.
The mind viewed as a passive receptacle for sensory experience.
American Heritage
Offering no opposition or resistance; submissive; yielding; patient.
Webster's New World
Existing, conducted, or experienced without active or concerted effort.
American Heritage
Taking no active part; inactive.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
noun
passives
The passive voice.
Webster's New World
A verb in this voice.
Webster's New World
Not involving active participation, especially an enterprise in which an investor has no control whatsoever in its income-producing activity.
Webster's New World Law
(countable, grammar) A form of a verb that is in the passive voice.
Wiktionary
Antonyms:
Other Word Forms of Passive
Noun
Singular:
passive
Plural:
passivesOrigin of Passive
-
From French passif, from Latin passivus (“serving to express the suffering of an action; in late Latin literally capable of suffering or feeling”), from pati (“to suffer”), past participle of passus; compare patient.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English from Old French passif from Latin passīvus subject to emotion, the passive from passus past participle of patī to suffer pē(i)- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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