passivity
Americannoun
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Also passiveness the state or condition of being passive.
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chemical inactivity, especially the resistance to corrosion of certain metals when covered with a coherent oxide layer.
Etymology
Origin of passivity
Explanation
Passivity is allowing others to do things to you without complaining or pushing back. The baby-sitter's passivity led her charges to walk all over her. They stayed up all night and tied her to the chair, and all she said was, "Please stop misbehaving." You'd use the noun passivity to refer to the state of being passive — passivity applies to someone who accepts the actions or opinions of others without speaking up. Passivity can help you from getting into a fight but that same passivity can mean you might also get a black eye.
Vocabulary lists containing passivity
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Elie Wiesel's "Hope, Despair and Memory" (1986)
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The Bluest Eye
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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.
Passivity can be as impossible to capture on camera as the moon.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2025
Passivity regarding the lethal risk of ES is a challenging extra piece of the puzzle around football, racialization and death.
From Salon • Nov. 13, 2021
Passivity is naturally linked to the monotony of life adrift but also to hopelessness, which can set in rapidly and have fatal consequences.
From Scientific American • Apr. 16, 2021
Passivity is maybe better than the irrational enemy the public are often cast as when it comes to science, technology, medical or environmental policy.
From The Guardian • Feb. 8, 2013
Passivity on the part of the clients had thus been encouraged throughout our expedition.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
