passivity
noun
pas·siv·i·ty
pa-ˈsi-və-tē 
1
: the quality or state of being passive : passiveness
The only thing that I find more depressing than this charlatan is the passivity of the museum-goers who pass before his works: they may have an inkling that they are being had, but they are unable to trust the evidence of their eyes.—
Jed Perl
Jed Perl… and now she was condemned to years of genteel English poverty by a passivity stubborn as low-grade fever.—Vivian Gornick
Vivian GornickThe implication—that American policy makers had, out of some combination of timorous passivity and treasonous perfidy, lost China to Communism—set off one of the darkest-ever turns in American civic life.—Daniel Kurtz-Phelan
Daniel Kurtz-Phelan2
chemistry
: a chemically inactive state
—used especially of a metal that has lost its normal chemical activity and is resistant to corrosion
The lower limit of 11% is based on the markedly increased corrosion resistance and spontaneous passivity obtained at this level.—Donald H. DeClerck et al.
Donald H. DeClerck et al.Examples of passivity in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
My approach to the situation is certainly not one of contemplative passivity.
—Alexei Navalny, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
But the books complement each other in isolating a specific strain of mid-century masculinity, one that’s a strange mix of entitlement and passivity, austerity and impiety, dutifulness and indifference.
—Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2024
If Ukraine’s current story is being told as one of resilience, Russia’s has been cast as a tale of bottomless moral passivity.
—Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information, Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
—Sean Illing, Vox, 11 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for passivity 
Alexei Navalny, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
But the books complement each other in isolating a specific strain of mid-century masculinity, one that’s a strange mix of entitlement and passivity, austerity and impiety, dutifulness and indifference.
—Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2024
If Ukraine’s current story is being told as one of resilience, Russia’s has been cast as a tale of bottomless moral passivity.
—Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information, Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
—Sean Illing, Vox, 11 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for passivity
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Cite this Entry
“Passivity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/passivity. Accessed 3 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
passivity
noun
pas·siv·i·ty
pa-ˈsiv-ət-ē
plural passivities
: the quality or state of being passive or submissive
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