🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

被动

Pronunciation / Transliteration: bèidòng

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Passive/ˈpæs.ɪv/
adjectivenounCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #1500 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"在被动句中,主语受到动词的影响。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As adjective
  1. 1

    Not active; receiving an action rather than taking it.

    "In a passive voice sentence, the subject is acted upon by the verb."
As noun
  1. 1

    A grammatical construction in which the subject receives the action of the verb.

    "The sentence 'The ball was thrown by John' is an example of the passive."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The word 'passive' originates from the Latin 'passivus', meaning 'capable of suffering or enduring', which in turn comes from 'pati', meaning 'to suffer'. The term evolved through Middle English, retaining its core meaning related to being acted upon rather than acting.

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