Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[bakum123]

please, give me explanations about difference of meanings between "captivity" and "captive" including some exemples.

[CP]

A captive is a person or animal that has been captured and is being held captive / held in captivity -- held prisoner, or at least held in a confined place. So a prisoner, a kidnappee, a zoo animal would all be captives, held captive, held in captivity.
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[redset]

A 'captive' is someone or something which is trapped or restrained, like a prisoner. You can also use 'captive' as an adjective to say that something is a captive, as in 'a captive animal', or you can say that someone was 'taken captive' - taken prisoner.

'Captivity' is the state of being captive, or the place where a captive is held. So wild animals are often kept 'in captivity', in zoos or wildlife preserves. If the police are chasing a criminal, when they catch him they 'take him into captivity'. When he's in captivity, he is a captive. Does that explain things?

You can also use 'captive', to mean people who aren't actually prisoners but who are still unable to leave for some reason - kids in a classroom could be called a 'captive audience' because they have to sit there and listen, they can't really walk out because they would get into trouble! A woman could also hold people captive with her beauty, which means that she's so beautiful that people would find it difficult to look away or ignore her. You wouldn't really use 'captivity' for these situations though