passively
Americanadverb
-
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.
-
without active participation.
The walk signals can be activated manually with a push button or passively by means of a pedestrian detection system.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Even people who know very little about finance typically know that stock-picking funds rarely beat a low-cost fund that passively follows “the index,” and that costs really matter a lot to your long-term returns.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
Rather than passively consuming a finished narrative, audiences actively participate in constructing and navigating the environment itself.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
The first is to sit off more passively in a compact block, allowing the opposition to have more of the ball but preventing them the space to play through.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
“Monetary policy is not dealing with a short-term supply shock that we can passively look through,” Nagel said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
But all of this I passively accepted as a way of life, for I knew no other.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
