Definitions for Passive Voice
pas·sive voice

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. passive voice, passivenoun

   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"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. passive voicenoun

   The form of a transitive verb in which its subject receives the action.

2. passive voicenoun

   Any construction that obscures the agent of an action, or the agency of said agent.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Passive voice

   A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed. This contrasts with active voice, in which the subject has the agent role. For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences. Typically, in passive clauses, what is usually expressed by the object (or sometimes another argument) of the verb is now expressed by the subject, while what is usually expressed by the subject is either omitted or is indicated by some adjunct of the clause. Thus, turning an active sense of a verb into a passive sense is a valence-decreasing process ("detransitivizing process"), because it syntactically turns a transitive sense into an intransitive sense. This is not always the case; for example in Japanese a passive-voice construction does not necessarily decrease valence.Many languages have both an active and a passive voice; this allows for greater flexibility in sentence construction, as either the semantic agent or patient may take the syntactic role of subject. The use of passive voice allows speakers to organize stretches of discourse by placing figures other than the agent in subject position. This may be done to foreground the patient, recipient, or other thematic role; it may also be useful when the semantic patient is the topic of on-going discussion. The passive voice may also be used to avoid specifying the agent of an action.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. passive voice

   Passive voice is a grammatical construction where the object of a sentence becomes the subject and typically indicates an action being done to it by someone or something else. Instead of saying "The cat chased the mouse" (active voice), for example, one would say "The mouse was chased by the cat" in passive voice.

Matched Categories

1. • Voice

How to pronounce Passive Voice?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Passive Voice in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Passive Voice in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Passive Voice in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of Passive Voice in a Sentence

1. Sydney J. Harris:

   We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice—that is, until we have stopped saying, It got lost, and say, I lost it.

2. Sydney Harris:

   We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice-that is, until we have stopped saying 'It got lost,' and say, 'I lost it.'

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Passive Voice
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Passive_Voice
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_Voice
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com