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
- quasi-passively adverb
- semipassively adverb
- unpassively adverb
Etymology
Origin of passively
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.
Buyers are willing to secure memory supply at higher prices while memory suppliers are rather passively taking higher prices proposed by customers, they note.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 9, 2026
The ranking also includes “smart beta” ETFs, which are run passively but built on active investment strategies.
From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026
RNA-based monitoring may offer an advantage because cancer cells actively secrete RNA rather than passively shedding DNA.
From Science Daily • Feb. 17, 2026
Approachable, practical counsel on how to make it, however, is no longer as passively accessible as it once was.
From Salon • Jan. 30, 2026
He watched it passively for a moment, until of a sudden he realized it was a female black widow doing her thing not three feet from his toes.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
