receptive

See also: réceptive

English

WOTD – 14 May 2021

Etymology

From Late Middle English receptive, receptyue (“capable of receiving something; acting as a receptacle”),[1] 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’).[2] 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 (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/
Rhymes: -ɛptɪv
Hyphenation: re‧cept‧ive

Adjective

receptive (comparative more receptive, superlative most receptive)

Capable of receiving something.
Antonyms: irreceptive, nonreceptive, unreceptive
Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.
Synonyms: acceptive, susceptive
Antonym: unreceptive
(botany) Of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction; fertile.
(neurology, psychology) Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.
Antonym: expressive
(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 (sammāʿ) (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
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 translations at fertile

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

of a female animal: prepared to mate — See also translations at in heat

Bulgarian: разгонена (bg) (razgonena)

References

“receptī̆ve, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
“receptive, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “receptive, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] “receptī̆ve, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[2] “receptive, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “receptive, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.