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.

Browse dictionary by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Psychology term of the day

February 23rd 2025

infrasound

n. sound whose frequency is too low to be detected by human hearing, generally encompassing the range of 20 Hz to .001 Hz. The scientific study of infrasound is known as infrasonics. Able to cover long distances and circumvent or penetrate obstacles without dispersing, infrasonic waves are used by many nonhuman animals to communicate (see infrasonic communication) and have a variety of applications in geological monitoring (e.g., prediction of volcanic eruptions, detection of earthquakes). Compare ultrasound.