# receptive

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ɹɪˈsɛptɪv/ · frequency rank #19,183

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

## 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”)).

## Easily confused with
- **recessive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/receptive-vs-recessive)
- **receive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/receive-vs-receptive)
- **reception** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/reception-vs-receptive)

## Common misspellings (13)
`erceptive`, `rceeptive`, `recceptive`, `recepitve`, `recepptive`, `receptiev`, `receptivve`, `recepttive`, `receptvie`, `recetpive`, `recpetive`, `reecptive`, `rreceptive`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/receptive