use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

pas·sive (păsĭv)
Share:
adj.
1. Receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in return: the mind viewed as a passive receptacle for sensory experience.
2. Accepting or submitting without objection or resistance; submissive: a passive acceptance of one's fate.
3. Existing, conducted, or experienced without active or concerted effort: “Although tick paralysis is a reportable disease in Washington, surveillance is passive, and only 10 cases were reported during 1987–1995” (US Department of Health and Human Services). [Many parents believe] that computers are educational and, at the least, less passive than television” (Laurie Hays).
4. Of, relating to, or being certain bonds or shares that do not bear financial interest.
5. Of, relating to, or being a solar heating or cooling system that uses no external mechanical power.
6. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb form or voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject is the object of the action or the effect of the verb. For example, in the sentence They were impressed by his manner, were impressed is in the passive voice.
7. Chemistry Unreactive except under special or extreme conditions; inert.
8. Electronics Exhibiting no gain or contributing no energy: a passive circuit element.
n.
Grammar
1. The passive voice.
2. A verb or construction in the passive voice.

[Middle English, from Old French passif, from Latin passīvus, subject to emotion, the passive, from passus, past participle of patī, to suffer; see pē(i)- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

passive·ly adv.
passive·ness n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.