ENGLISH
REFERENCE

receptive

adj.
C1 Advanced US //ɹiˈsɛptɪv// UK //ɹɪsˈɛptɪv// re·cep·tive

adj. willing to listen to or accept new ideas and suggestions. You use this to describe someone who is open-minded and ready to learn.

adj. willing to consider or accept new suggestions and ideas. Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be', 'seem', or 'become'.


SIMPLE

The manager is very receptive to my new ideas.

CONTEXTUAL

The audience was surprisingly receptive to the speaker's controversial proposal for urban reform.

COMPLEX

A successful diplomat must remain receptive to the subtle shifts in their counterpart's position during a negotiation.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -īvus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipiō (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capiō (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)).

Usage

Typically takes the preposition 'to' when followed by an object. Often follows a linking verb.

Pitfall

receptive for the ideareceptive to the ideaThe adjective receptive collocations with the preposition 'to', not 'for'.

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