receptive
adjUK /ɹɪˈsɛptɪv/ · US /ɹəˈsɛptɪv/
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- (“to hold; to seize”)).
Capable of receiving something.
Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.
- receptive to the idea
- The patient was receptive to her treatment.
2 more examples
- The owner drank cider at the Spotted Woodpigeon and talked pleasantly with the villagers, who, on learning that he had never even heard of the Surrey cattle-maimings, were at great pains to pour information and theories into his receptive ear.1921, Herbert Jenkins, Malcolm Sage, Detective:
- But, while the others took weeks - hell, even months - to get used to everything, myself included, you found your footing in a matter of days. And not just that - you've also become someone they can trust, even if they don't seem receptive. It's times like these they're gonna need someone like that the most. You're very strong, Pomni. And I know you'll be able to get through this.2026 June 19, Gooseworx, “Remember” (5:06 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus, episode 9, spoken by Kinger (Sean Chiplock):
Of a female flower or gynoecium
- When the delightful draught is quaffed and the winged beggar turns to leave, it is confronted with a straight and narrow way out, and before the open can be reached our bee must squeeze under a receptive stigma covered with sticky hairs which comb the pollen grains from the fuzzy back of the visitor.1917 June 23, National Geographic Magazine, Volume 31/Number 6/Our State Flowers/The Moccasin Flower:
Human sciences, Medicine, Neurology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sciences Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.
- receptive fluency
- receptive aphasia
- Derived terms
29 terms
baroreceptive, bioreceptive, bio-receptive, chemoreceptive, electroreceptive, extrareceptive, hygroreceptive, irreceptive, magnetoreceptive, mechanoreceptive, multireceptive, nociceptive, nonreceptive, osmoreceptive, 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, recept, receptable, receptacle, receptacular, receptaculum, receptance, receptant, receptary, receptibility, receptible, reception, receptionism, receptionist, receptitious, receptor, receptoral, receptory, receptual, receptually