passivity

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
passive/ˈpasɪv/

▶adjective

• 1 accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.

• 2 Grammar denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb (e.g. they were killed as opposed to he killed them). The opposite of active.

• 3 (of a circuit or device) containing no source of energy or electromotive force.

  ■ (of radar or a satellite) receiving or reflecting radiation rather than generating its own signal.

• 4 Chemistry unreactive because of a thin inert surface layer of oxide.

▶noun Grammar a passive form of a verb.

– derivatives
passively adverb,
passiveness noun,
passivity noun.

– origin ME: from L. passivus, from pass-, pati ‘suffer’.