passive
/'pæsiv/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Grammatical Voice: Describing a verb form or sentence construction where the grammatical subject is the recipient of the action, not the performer.
- Accepting without Reaction: Accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.
- Inactive or Submissive: Lacking in energy, initiative, or will; not participating actively.
Noun:
- Grammatical Category: The passive voice as a grammatical construction or set of verb forms.
Usage Examples
Adjective:
- The sentence "The window was broken" is in the passive voice. (Here, 'the window' receives the action.)
- He played a passive role in the meeting, listening but not contributing.
- She was passive in the face of criticism, offering no defense.
Noun:
- "Was written" is an example of the passive.
- Some writers advise against overusing the passive.
Advanced Usage
- Passive Construction: A sentence structure focusing on the action and its recipient, often omitting the agent (the doer).
- The proposal was approved unanimously. (The agent 'by the committee' is implied or omitted.)
- Passive Resistance: A method of protest characterized by non-violent non-cooperation.
- The activists engaged in passive resistance by staging sit-ins.
Variants and Related Words
- Passively (adverb): In a passive manner.
- He waited passively for instructions.
- Passiveness (noun): The state or quality of being passive.
- Passivity (noun): The acceptance of what happens, without active response; often interchangeable with 'passiveness'.
- Her passivity in the situation worried her friends.
Synonyms
- Adjective (for non-grammatical senses): Submissive, inactive, unresisting, compliant, acquiescent.
- Noun (grammatical): Passive voice.
Antonyms
- Active: Taking action; the grammatical voice where the subject performs the verb's action.
- Assertive: Having or showing a confident and forceful personality.
- Proactive: Creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding later.
Related Phrases
- Passive-aggressive: Of or denoting a type of behavior characterized by indirect resistance to the demands of others and an avoidance of direct confrontation.
- Giving someone the silent treatment is a passive-aggressive tactic.
- Passive income: Earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership, or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved.
- He receives passive income from his book royalties.
- Passive smoking: The inhalation of smoke from other people's cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.
- Laws protect workers from the dangers of passive smoking.
Adjective
- expressing that the subject of the sentence is the patient of the action denoted by the verb
- academics seem to favor passive sentences
- peacefully resistant in response to injustice
- passive resistance
- lacking in energy or will
- Much benevolence of the passive order may be traced to a disinclination to inflict pain upon oneself- George Meredith
Noun
- the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb
- `The ball was thrown by the boy' uses the passive voice
- `The ball was thrown' is an abbreviated passive