| passive voice |
| Definition:
A sentence is in the passive voice when the logical subject receives the action of the verb, and thus becomes the verb's object.
Note: This is opposed to the active voice where the subject of the verb is the agent of the action. |
| Example: In the sentence Rome was in fact built in a day, the verb built is in the passive voice. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The term's first OED citation is from 1388: "A participle of a present tens, either preterit, of actif vois, eithir passif, mai be resoluid into a verbe of the same tens, and a coniunccioun copulatif." (Wyclif Prol. 57) |