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passivity Definition

pas·siv·ity (pa sivə tē)

noun

the state or quality of being passive; esp., inaction, inertia, submissiveness, etc.

Etymology: LL passivitas

passivity Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • encourage: As video encourages passivity, it can prove difficult to engage the attention of students.
  • engender: Feelings of political exclusion and hopelessness engender damaging passivity punctuated by urban unrest.
  • emphasize: Instead their analysis emphasized the passivity imposed upon workers by the dominance of the media.
  • promote: The biomedical model of care predominates in these areas of medicine, potentially promoting patient passivity.
  • explain: The AK explained the passivity of the workers when faced by this conflict in the enemy camp by their defeat in early 1933.
  • temporize: From this general perspective, ABC for a Marxist, he contrives however to make a recipe of temporizing passivity and national nihilism.

Adjective modifier

  • political: In the triumph of Royalist counter-revolution Milton saw the dangers of political passivity, of ideological sloth.
  • complete: In addition, the complete passivity of the wavelength router enables a totally passive hub.
  • female: He loathed the bourgeois notions of acceptable sexuality and sexual behavior, and in particular the tradition of female passivity.
  • apparent: Accepting their apparent passivity is clearly no way forward.
  • relative: Behind the relative passivity of this year's delegations are problems that could undermine the health and credibility of the NPT regime.
  • certain: There has to be a certain passivity in our attitude to our preaching, if we are not to be manipulative.

Modifies a noun

  • zone: A one meter wide red " passivity zone " surrounds this area, making the full competition area 9m in diameter.

Noun used with modifier

  • audience: One of expanded cinema's major aims is to work against audience passivity and compel active participation in one form or another.

Preposition: in

  • face: We can come close to an Islamic passivity in the face of trouble.

Preposition: of

  • woman: But the passivity of the woman becomes her greatest strength.
  • mass: However, once again, the key element in the equation was the passivity of the masses.
  • response: While some British progressives, including Clare Short, denounced the passivity of the international response to the genocide, most were silent.
  • worker: The AK explained the passivity of the workers when faced by this conflict in the enemy camp by their defeat in early 1933.
  • state: He will protest in vain, so far as he seeks to rehabilitate the old absolute doctrine of the economic passivity of the State.
passivity Quotes

There is a misunderstanding by marketers in our culture about what freedom of choice is. In the market, it is equated with multiplying choice. This is a misconception. If you have infinite choice, people are reduced to passivity.

—Gitlin,Todd