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

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

Instead, they shifted to the passive voice, affirming only that Biden “was certified” as the winner by Congress and served four years as the 46th president.

From Slate • Jun. 17, 2025

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

This highlights yet another payoff of the passive voice: it can unburden memory by shortening the interval between a filler and a gap.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker