passive
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.accepting what happens or what people do without trying to change anything.
adj.accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.
Simple“He played a passive role in the meeting and let others make all the decisions.”
In context“The local population remained largely passive during the political transition, observing the changes without organized protest or public endorsement.”
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.describing a sentence where the person or thing that receives the action is the subject.
adj.denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb.
Simple“In the passive sentence 'The window was broken,' we don't know who did it.”
In context“Scientific writing often employs the passive voice to maintain an objective tone, focusing on the process rather than the researcher.”
Antonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
adj.earning money without being actively involved in a business or job.
adj.relating to a form of investment or income where the individual is not involved in day-to-day operations.
Simple“He earns a passive income from the apartments he rents out to students.”
In context“Passive investment strategies, such as index funds, typically incur lower management fees than those requiring active trading by a fund manager.”
- 04 C1 Advanced
adj.describing a part that uses energy but does not create or increase it.
adj.relating to a component or system that does not require an external power source to function or cannot amplify a signal.
Simple“The house uses passive solar heating to stay warm in the winter.”
In context“The circuit design relies on passive components like resistors and capacitors to filter the signal without the need for additional power amplification.”
- 05 C1 Advanced
n.the form of a verb used when the subject is having something done to it.
n.the passive voice or a verb in that voice.
Simple“The teacher told us to avoid using the passive too much in our essays.”
In context“While the passive is useful for emphasizing the recipient of an action, overusing it can make prose feel heavy and indirect.”
Antonyms
“Bezos is considered a passive investor and will not have a seat on the board.”
“Using passive acoustic sensors to monitor animals such as bats, crickets and recently earthworms, she aims to understand how biodiversity is faring in response to human-driven environmental change and identify effective nature recovery approaches.”
From Middle English passyf, passyve, from Middle French, French passif, from Latin passivus (“serving to express the suffering of an action; in late Latin literally capable of suffering or feeling”), from passus, past participle of pati (“to suffer”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hurt”); compare patient.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.