active voice

in linguistics, the category of a verb in which the grammatical subject of the clause or sentence is the agent of the action and the grammatical object is its patient. The great majority of English sentences are constructed using the active voice. The active voice is illustrated by the sentence The thief stole the purse, as opposed to The purse was stolen by the thief. Compare passive voice.

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Psychology term of the day

December 19th 2024

presenilin

n. any member of a family of transmembrane proteins, mutations in which are associated with early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease.