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
Antonyms:
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:
passives

Origin 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

  • 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

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to passive using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

Words Ending With

Unscrambles

passive