passive voice

in linguistics, the category of a verb used when the patient of the action appears as the grammatical subject of the clause or sentence and the agent appears as the grammatical object. The passive voice, which is much less common than the standard active voice, is illustrated by the sentence The purse was stolen by the thief, as opposed to The thief stole the purse.

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

November 18th 2024

recessive allele

the version of a gene (see allele) whose effects are manifest only if it is carried on both members of a homologous pair of chromosomes. Hence, the trait determined by a recessive allele (the recessive trait) is apparent only in the absence of another version of that same gene (the dominant allele). The term autosomal recessive is used to describe patterns of inheritance in which characteristics are conveyed by recessive alleles. For example, Tay–Sachs disease is an autosomal recessive disorder.