Responsive

How to spell responsive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce responsive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does responsive mean?

1. adjectiveReacting quickly, readily, or sympathetically to something.

Responsive in a sentence

• The new manager was warm and responsive to staff concerns.

• A responsive website adjusts its layout to fit any screen size.

Where does responsive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb respondere, which meant 'to answer' or 'to reply', formed from re- 'back' and spondere 'to pledge or promise'. The literal sense was therefore a pledge given in return, an idea that survives in the modern notion of answering or reacting to something. The past participle stem responsus gave rise to a family of English words including respond, response, and responsible. Responsive itself entered English in the late 1300s through Old French, originally describing something that gives an answer, and later broadening to mean reacting readily or sympathetically. The same spondere root, meaning to make a solemn promise, also underlies 'spouse' and 'sponsor', a reminder that the -spons- in the middle keeps its single s before the -ive ending.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• spons (from spondere: to pledge/answer)
• -ive (adjective: tending to)