Definition of RECEPTIVE

receptive

Adjective Satellite

  • open to arguments, ideas, or change
    • "receptive to reason and the logic of facts"
  • of a nerve fiber or impulse originating outside and passing toward the central nervous system
  • able to absorb liquid (not repellent)
    • "the paper is ink-receptive"

Adjective

  • ready or willing to receive favorably
    • "receptive to the proposals"

Adj

  • Capable of receiving something.
  • Ready to receive something, especially new concepts or ideas.
  • Of a female flower or gynoecium: ready for reproduction; fertile.
  • Of, affecting, or pertaining to the understanding of language rather than its expression.
  • Of a female animal (especially a mammal): prepared to mate; in heat, in oestrus.

Examples

  • receptive to the idea
  • The patient was receptive to her treatment

Origin / 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”)).

Scrabble Score: 16

receptive: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
receptive: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
receptive: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 19

receptive: valid Words With Friends Word