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   passive

   /ˈpasɪv/

   adjective

   • 1. accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance: "the women were portrayed as passive victims" Similar submissiveacquiescentunresistingyieldingunassertivenon-resistantcompliantcomplaisantpliantresignedobedientdociletractablemalleablepliablemeeksubdueddeferentialforbearinglong-sufferingpatientlamblikenon-violentsupinenon-aggressivearchaic:resistlessOpposite activeassertive
   • 2. denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb (e.g. they were killed as opposed to the active form he killed them).
   • 3. (of a circuit or device) containing no source of electromotive force: "a passive optical network is to be installed in 2000 homes"
   • ▪ (of radar or a satellite) receiving or reflecting radiation from a transmitter or target rather than generating its own signal: "passive sensors detect the emissions from enemy radar"
   • ▪ (of a heating system) making use of incident sunlight as an energy source: "bananas can be grown at the highest altitude using passive solar heating alone"
   • 4. (of a metal) made unreactive by a thin inert surface layer of oxide.

   noun

   • 1. a passive form of a verb.
   • ▪ the passive voice.

   Word Origin late Middle English(in passive (sense 2 of the adjective), also in the sense ‘(exposed to) suffering, acted on by an external agency’): from Latin passivus, from pass- ‘suffered’, from the verb pati.

   Derivatives

   • 1. passiveness noun

   Scrabble Points: 12

   • P

     3

   • A

     1

   • S

     1

   • S

     1

   • I

     1

   • V

     4

   • E

     1

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