receptive

See also: réceptive

English

WOTD – 14 May 2021

Etymology

From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”), borrowed from Medieval Latin receptivus (“capable of receiving something”), from Latin receptus (“retaken, having been retaken; received, having been received”) + -īvus (suffix added to the perfect passive participial stems of verbs, forming a deverbal adjective meaning ‘doing; related to doing’). Receptus is the perfect passive participle of recipiō (“to regain possession, take back; to recapture; to receive; to accept, undertake”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards; again’) + capiō (“to capture, catch, take; to take hold, take possession; to take on; to contain, hold; to occupy; to possess; to receive, take in; to comprehend, understand; to captivate, charm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈsɛptɪv/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/
• Rhymes: -ɛptɪv
• Hyphenation: re‧cept‧ive

Adjective

receptive (comparative more receptive, superlative most receptive)

1. Capable of receiving something.

   Antonyms: irreceptive, nonreceptive, unreceptive

2. Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.

   Synonyms: acceptive, susceptive

   Antonym: unreceptive

3. (botany) Of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction; fertile.
4. (neurology, psychology) Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.

   Antonym: expressive

5. (zoology) Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.

   Synonym: oestrual

Derived terms

• baroreceptive
• bioreceptive
• chemoreceptive
• electroreceptive
• extrareceptive
• hygroreceptive
• irreceptive
• magnetoreceptive
• mechanoreceptive
• multireceptive
• nociceptive
• nonreceptive
• photoreceptive
• prereceptive
• proprioceptive
• receptive aphasia
• receptive field
• receptive language
• receptively
• receptiveness
• receptive spot
• receptivity
• telereceptive
• thermoreceptive
• unreceptive
• unreceptively
• unreceptiveness

 

Related terms

• receipt
• receive
• receiver
• receivership
• receiving (noun)
• recept
• receptable
• receptacle
• receptacular
• receptaculum
• receptance
• receptant (archaic)
• receptary (archaic or obsolete)
• receptibility
• receptible (archaic)
• reception
• receptionism
• receptionist
• receptitious (archaic)
• receptor
• receptoral
• receptory
• receptually (rare)
• receptual (rare)

 

Translations

capable of receiving something

• Armenian: ընդունակ (hy) (əndunak)
• Catalan: receptiu
• Danish: modtagelig
• Esperanto: akceptema
• German: rezeptiv (de), empfangsbereit
• Greek: παθητικός (el) (pathitikós)

  Ancient: πᾰθητῐκός (pathētikós)

• Hungarian: befogadó (hu)
• Irish: gabhálach, glacach
• Italian: recettibile, ricettivo (it)
• Kazakh: қабылдағыш (qabyldağyş)
• Macedonian: рецептивен (receptiven)
• Maori: mauminamina
• Persian: نیوشا (fa) (niyušâ)
• Polish: chłonny (pl)
• Portuguese: receptivo (pt) (Brazil), recetivo (Portugal), recetível (Portugal), receptível (Brazil)
• Romanian: receptiv (ro) m or n, primitor (ro) m or n
• Russian: восприимчивый (ru) (vospriimčivyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ре̏цептӣван, пријѐмчив

  Roman: rȅceptīvan (sh), prijèmčiv (sh)

• Spanish: receptivo

ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas

• Arabic: سَمَّاع (sammāʕ) (often derogatory)
• Bulgarian: възприемчив (bg) (vǎzpriemčiv)
• Catalan: receptiu
• Danish: modtagelig
• Dutch: ontvankelijk (nl), vatbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: akceptema
• Finnish: avoin (fi), myötätuntoinen (fi), taipuvainen (fi), vastaanottavainen, vastaanottokykyinen
• French: réceptif (fr)
• German: aufnahmefähig (de), empfänglich (de)
• Irish: gabhálach
• Kazakh: қабылдағыш (qabyldağyş)
• Latin: susceptīvus
• Maori: mauminamina, mauritū
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mottakelig

  Nynorsk: næm

• Portuguese: receptivo (pt) (Brazil), recetivo (Portugal), recetível (Portugal), receptível (Brazil), aberto (pt)
• Spanish: receptivo
• Swedish: öppen (sv)

of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction — see also fertile

of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression

of a female animal: prepared to mate — see also in heat

• Bulgarian: разгонена (bg) (razgonena)