captive

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈkæptɪv/ See IPA manual

Freq #10608

Meanings

1

adj
Kept as a prisoner or not allowed to be free.

The captive soldiers were finally released after the war.
2

noun
A person or animal that has been captured and is held prisoner.

The captives were kept in a small room for several days.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · kept as a prisoner or not... confined imprisoned jailed

Opposites

non-captivenoncaptive

Word family

Forms captives

Derived forms captivancecaptivelyencaptiverecaptivesemicaptive

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English captif; derived from Latin captīvus, probably through a borrowing from a Middle French intermediate. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“seize, hold”). Doublet of caitiff.

*kap- Proto-Indo-European captif Middle English captīvus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# captive

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** adj, noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈkæptɪv/
**Frequency rank:** 10608

## Meanings
1. Kept as a prisoner or not allowed to be free.
2. A person or animal that has been captured and is held prisoner.

## Examples
- The captive soldiers were finally released after the war.
- The captives were kept in a small room for several days.

## Antonyms
- non-captive
- noncaptive

## Derived Forms
- captivance
- captively
- encaptive
- recaptive
- semicaptive

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *kap-
- Root: captif
- Root: captīvus

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English captif; derived from Latin captīvus, probably through a borrowing from a Middle French intermediate. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“seize, hold”). Doublet of caitiff.

## AI Etymology
Captive is inherited from Middle English captif; derived from Latin captīvus, probably through a borrowing from a Middle French intermediate. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“seize, hold”). Doublet of caitiff.

## Topics
- People & Society

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