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Active vs Voluntary - What's the difference?

active | voluntary |

As a verb active

is .

As an adjective voluntary is

done, given, or acting of one's own free will.

As an adverb voluntary is

(obsolete) voluntarily.

As a noun voluntary is

(music) a short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument.

active

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having the power or quality of acting; causing change; communicating action or motion; acting;—opposed to passive, that receives.
  • :
  • Quick in physical movement; of an agile and vigorous body; nimble.
  • :
  • In action; actually proceeding; working; in force; — opposed to quiescent, dormant, or extinct.
  • :
  • # Being an active volcano.
  • Given to action; constantly engaged in action; energetic; diligent; busy; — opposed to dull, sluggish, indolent, or inert.
  • :
  • *
  • *:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.
  • Requiring or implying action or exertion;—opposed to sedentary or to tranquil.
  • :
  • Given to action rather than contemplation; practical; operative; — opposed to speculative or theoretical.
  • :
  • Brisk; lively.
  • :
  • Implying or producing rapid action.
  • :
  • About verbs.
  • #Applied to a form of the verb; — opposed to passive. See active voice.
  • #Applied to verbs which assert that the subject acts upon or affects something else; transitive.
  • #Applied to all verbs that express action as distinct from mere existence or state.
  • (lb) (of a homosexual man) enjoying a role in anal sex in which he penetrates, rather than being penetrated by his partner.
  • Synonyms

    * (1): acting * (2): agile, nimble * (3): in action, in force, working * (4): busy, deedful, diligent, energetic * (6): operative, practical * (7): brisk, lively * (9.2): transitive * (10): top * See also

    Antonyms

    * (1): passive * (2): indolent, lethargic * (3): dormant, extinct, quiescent * (4): dull, indolent, inert, sluggish * (5): sedentary, tranquil * (6): speculative, theoretical * (7): slow * (9.1): passive * (10): passive, bottom

    Derived terms

    * cloud-active

    See also

    * versatile (in relation to sense 10 )

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person or thing that is acting or capable of acting.
  • voluntary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Done, given, or acting of one's own free will.
  • * N. W. Taylor
  • That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action is the true principle of orthodoxy.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • She fell to lust a voluntary prey.
  • Done by design or intention; intentional.
  • If a man accidentally kills another by lopping a tree, it is not voluntary manslaughter.
  • Working or done without payment.
  • Endowed with the power of willing.
  • * Hooker
  • God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary , agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him.
  • Of or relating to voluntaryism.
  • a voluntary church, in distinction from an established or state church

    Synonyms

    * discretionary * optional * willful * volitional

    Antonyms

    * compulsory * involuntary * obligatory

    Derived terms

    * voluntarily

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Voluntarily.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
  • *:And all that els was pretious and deare, / The sea unto him voluntary brings [...].
  • Noun

    (voluntaries)
  • (music) A short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument
  • A volunteer