Wordwyrt

passivity

/pəˈsɪvɪti/puh-SIH-vih-tee
UK form converted from the US by rule · unchecked
/pəˈsɪvɪti/puh-SIH-vih-tee

Meaningthe quality of being passive

Common meaning: lack of action or resistance

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Journey through time

  1. Latinpassivus‘suf- fering’source
  2. Frenchpassif‘passive’source
  3. Englishpassive‘accepting events without active resistance’
  4. Englishformed in English from passivepassivity‘lack of action or resistance’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from passive + -ity.

Dictionary: Skeat (1898), PASSIVE, p.424 · scan

Source words

  • passivus Latin · source word “suf- fering”

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