passively
Americanadverb
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without emotion, reaction, or resistance.
Shiloh passively watched the reactions of the crowd.
At the start of the play, she passively accepts her wretched lot in life.
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without active participation.
The walk signals can be activated manually with a push button or passively by means of a pedestrian detection system.
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in a way that indicates being affected by some action, external force, or cause.
The patient reports significant pain when the shoulders and pelvis are rotated passively in the same plane.
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in a way that does not involve machinery or electronic devices.
The building is on stilts, allowing air to circulate freely underneath, thereby passively cooling the living areas.
Deciduous trees are ideal because they drop their leaves in winter, when you want sunlight to passively heat your home.
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Grammar. using the passive voice, indicating that the subject undergoes the action of the verb.
The sentence was worded passively to avoid blaming anyone by name.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of passively
Explanation
When you act passively, you don't put up any resistance — in fact, you hardly respond at all. Some people take charge during group projects and others passively accept whatever role is assigned to them. Doing something passively means giving in to someone else's actions or demands without any real response at all. It's easy for your soccer team to win against the opposition when they hardly put up a fight, passively accepting defeat as you score goal after goal. Another way to use this adverb is to mean "using sunlight or the earth's heat as an energy source." Passively heating your new home will save so much money on energy bills!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Conventional wisdom has long said that retail investors should buy cheap funds that passively track the major indexes, since these index funds generally outperform actively managed funds External link.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Technical issues with his second serve, and a tendency to play passively against the very best, also let him down.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
“The people who participate in this experience are not just passively writing a check to a candidate. Those people have become activated to become more engaged in the campaign,” Akhavan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
“That suggests Micron is trying to strengthen its position in the AI memory ecosystem, not just benefit passively from a shortage,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
Teddy passively looked up from his newspaper, but the woman had passed, and he didn’t look back.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
