receptive

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”)).

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

• Audio (UK):

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

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