passive
Syllables: pas·siveUK/ˈpæs.ɪv/
passive adjective: being subjected to an action without producing a reaction. Also the ellipsis of passive attack.
Adjective
passive (comparative more passive, superlative most passive)
- Being subjected to an action without producing a reaction.
- Taking no action.
- He remained passive during the protest.
- Being in the passive voice.
- Being inactive and submissive in a relationship, especially in a sexual one.
- Synonyms:
- compliant, pliant, submissive, amenable, biddable, complaisant, controllable, docile, governable, indulgent
- Antonyms:
- aggressive, dominant
- Not participating in management.
- Without motive power.
- a passive balloon
- a passive aeroplane
- Of a component: that consumes but does not produce energy, or is incapable of power gain.
- Where allowance is made for a possible future event.
- There would be a shuttle service of four trains an hour from Reading, where the rebuilt station also has passive provision for the trains.2021 May 5, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Heathrow Western Rail Access scheme 'on hold'”, in RAIL, number 930, page 26
- Antonyms:
- active
Noun
passive (plural passives)
- The passive voice of verbs.
- A form of a verb that is in the passive voice.
- A customer who is satisfied with a product or service, but not keen enough to promote it by word of mouth.
- If you want to improve your organization's NPS, you need to follow up with your detractors, passives, and promoters to understand why they answered your question as they did and what you can do better in the future.2014, Roy Barnes, Bob Kelleher, Customer Experience For Dummies, page 266
- Any component that consumes but does not produce energy, or is incapable of power gain.
- Reductions In Both Size And Weight Offered By Integrated Passives
You may not know it yet, but if you're like most consumers, you want integrated passives.2001, The Virginia Engineer, volume 50, page 20 - The components include active devices such as logic, memory, processors, etc.; passives such as capacitors, resistors, crystal oscillators, inductances, etc.; […]2010, Sridhar Canumalla, Puligandla Viswanadham, Portable Consumer Electronics: Packaging, Materials, and Reliability
- Reductions In Both Size And Weight Offered By Integrated Passives
- A thing whose worth decreases with time.
Also used as
passive is also the ellipsis of passive attack.
passive meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Kannada
passive in Hindi
- not active, but acted upon
- निष्क्रिय niṣkriya
passive in Bengali
- প্যাসিভ
passive in Telugu
- నిష్క్రియాత్మక, నిష్క్రియాత్మకం, నిష్క్రియాత్మకమైనది
passive in Kannada
- grammar: being in the passive voice
- ಕರ್ಮಣಿ karmaṇi
More languagesFewer languages
- passive in Punjabi
- ਪੈਸਿਵ, ਪੈਸੀਵ
- passive in Nepali
- प्यासिभ
- passive in Tagalog
- balintiyak
- passive in Arabic
- مَبْنِيٌّ لِلْمَجْهُول mabniyyun lilmajhūl
- passive in Persian
- منفعل monfa'el, پاسیو pâsiv, مجهول majhul
- passive in Vietnamese
- bị động, thụ động
Examples of passive in a sentence
- Many languages, including English, use auxiliary verbs in constructing the passive voice.
- Phrases such as officer-involved shooting are often criticized as examples of passive voice.
- The verbal system of Latin has two voices, active and passive.
Synonyms of passive
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of passive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more passive |
| superlative | most passive |
| Noun | |
| plural | passives |
Origin of passive
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.
Words formed from passive
- activo-passive
- antipassive
- endopassive
- exopassive
- interpassive
- long passive
- mediopassive
- neutropassive
- nonpassive
- paggro
- passifan
- passival
- passivate
- passivation
- passive-aggressive
- passive aggressor
- passive armour
- passive box
- passive defense
- passive-dependent
- passive euthanasia
- passive gravitational mass
- passive immunity
- passive income
- passive investor
- passive iron
- passive learning
- passively
- passive matrix
- passiveness
- passive participle
- passive photolocation
- passive provision
- passive radar
- passive resistance
- passive resister
- passive restraint
- passive smoke
- passive smoker
- passive smoking
- passive solar
- passive speaker
- passive suffrage
- passive vape
- passive vaper
- passive vaping
- passive vaporing
- passive vapouring
- passive vocabulary
- passive voice
- passivise
- passivism
- passivist
- passivistic
- passivity
- passivization
- passivize
- pseudo-passive
- pseudopassive
- transpassive
Phrases with passive
- Greek passive
- passive armor
- passive boxes
- short passive
- French passive
- passive attack
- passive vapers
- passive voices
- passive armours
- passive attacks
- passive incomes
- passive smokers
15 more phrasesFewer phrases
- passive defenses
- passive matrices
- passive matrixes
- passive investors
- passive resisters
- impersonal passive
- passive aggressive
- passive aggressors
- passive immunities
- passive restraints
- passive participles
- passive vocabularies
- perfect passive participle
- perfect passive participles
- passive gravitational masses
Words that rhyme with passive
Questions about passive
- What does passive mean?
- Passive means being subjected to an action without producing a reaction.
- What is passive in Hindi?
- Passive in Hindi is निष्क्रिय (niṣkriya). See Passive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is passive?
- Passive can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce passive?
- Passive is pronounced /ˈpæs.ɪv/ (UK).
Words near passive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: passive (page history and authors); passive (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passive (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passive (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passive (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-passive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “passive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/passive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.