passive voice

Cultural  

1. One of the two “voices” of verbs (see also active voice). A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in “The ball was thrown by the pitcher,” the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice. The same sentence cast in the active voice would be, “The pitcher threw the ball.”

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It is usually preferable to use the active voice wherever possible, because it gives a sense of immediacy to the sentence.

Example Sentences

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passive voice

They put their readers to sleep by deploying trite phrases in the passive voice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Aune explained that these examples were often written in passive voice, which shifts responsibility back to human actors rather than the technology itself.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2026

Notice the passive voice in its assertions that its channels “are blacked out due to a dispute” and that it hopes that further conversations with Charter “will restore access to its content.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2023

In the courtroom his lawyer read out a carefully written, complicated text, full of caveats, conditionals and the passive voice.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2023

The passive voice is just one of the gadgets that the English language makes available to rearrange phrases while preserving their semantic roles.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker