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passivevoice (usuallyuncountable,pluralpassive voices)

1. (grammar) The form of atransitive verb in which itssubject receives theaction.

   Thepassive voice is sometimes criticized for de-emphasizing the actor.["is ... criticized" is passive.]

   Many languages, including English, use auxiliary verbs in constructing thepassive voice.

2. (proscribed) Any writing whichobscures theidentity of theperpetrator of an action, regardless of whether the sentence uses the passive form of a verb.

   Phrases such asofficer-involved shooting are often criticized as examples ofpassive voice.

   • 2017 August 17, Mark Landler, “Where Predecessors Set Moral Standard, Trump Steps Back”, inNew York Times‎^[1]:

     On Saturday, in his first response to Charlottesville, Mr. Trump condemned the violence "on many sides." Then he lapsed into thepassive voice, expressing, as he has before, a sense of futility that the divisions between Americans would ever be healed.
     "It's been going on for a long time in our country," he said.

   • 2017 October 19, Lisa Parks, Caren Kaplan,Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, Duke University Press,→ISBN:

     Describing how the assault weapon would operate, Zworykin used thepassive voice. Interactions that would have relied on both image and operator were attributed instead to airplane and camera. For example, he explains: "The carrier airplane receives the picture viewed by the torpedo while remaining at an altitude beyond artillery range."

   • 2021 August 9, Mary Harris, “Newsflash: Coronavirus ain't going anywhere”, inSlate‎^[2]:

     Ashby: Access to care has always been an issue in certain demographics prior to the pandemic. We talk a lot about disparities, and I actually dislike those terms: disparities and inequality, all that, yada, yada.
     Harris: Is it thepassive voice you don't like?

• active voice

• active voice
• antipassive voice
• mediopassive voice
• middle voice
• reflexive verb