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What can I use as the opposite of "passive activities"? "Active activities" sounds too complicated due to the repetition. For example,

I enjoy active activities such as sport, dancing or laser tag.

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What's "passive activity"? The only definition I could find is: Activity in which the taxpayer did not materially participate in during the tax year.. – user20934 Jun 30 '12 at 8:27
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@rudra: I would class something like playing a board game as passive – Casebash Jun 30 '12 at 9:07
Because you're making up your own arbitrary distinction between "active" and "passive", this isn't really answerable. Your best bet is to just think about what you want to say and say it. – tenfour Jun 30 '12 at 11:13
@rudra watching television. – cornbread ninja 麵包忍者 Jun 30 '12 at 15:09
We could also consider a passive activity as an activity in which the person doesn't take part, for example, as a spectator at a football game, or indeed, as a viewer of a football game on television (@cornbread-ninja). Then we could classify a non-passive activity as one in which the person engages. – AndrewNimmo Jul 3 '12 at 12:12

5 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

I'd say OP enjoys physical activities (as opposed to sedentary pastimes such as chess, bridge, board games, etc.).

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I think the pair vigorous and sedentary or the pair physical and mental are better pairs than physical and sedentary. – jwpat7 Jun 30 '12 at 14:56
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@jwpat7: OP wants to contrast against "passive" activities. Vigorous activities, imho, wouldn't include, for example, golf or darts. But I would not call those "passive" activites - they're all primarily "physical" as opposed to sedentary/intellectual pastimes such as reading, playing cards, etc.. – FumbleFingers Jun 30 '12 at 17:34
up vote 3 down vote

Active pursuits avoids the repetition, though is still tautological if you consider that pursuit means activity.

As others have mentioned, passive isn’t really the right word to describe something that requires effort (however gentle that effort may be), and passive activities is somewhat contradictory.

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up vote 2 down vote

You could consider saying strenuous activities if the intention is to indicate exertion.

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up vote 2 down vote

A passive activity is a bit of an oxymoron, and an active activity is repetition.

I think what you are looking for is 'gentle activity' and 'energetic activity'.

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up vote 1 down vote

Because you mentioned playing board games as an example of a "passive activity," I'm guessing the words that you're looking for are:

  1. indoor activities/ games

    • and -

  2. outdoor activities/ games

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2  
Probably not. Indoor activities can include swimming, bowling, pushups among other things. Outdoor activities can include watching football, drinking beer, taking a nap, among other things. – emory Jun 30 '12 at 17:31

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