interesting question
the primary common characteristic of passive components is "no power supply needed" .
that is, the component works without adding connections to some sort of power supply
quote from google-ing passive component:
"A passive component is
an electronic component which can only receive energy,
which it can either dissipate, absorb or store it in an electric field or a magnetic field.
Passive elements do not need any form of electrical power to operate."
there are several types of passive components
resistors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor
capacitors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor
inductors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductor
based on the definition above, one could also add diodes and transformers,
other components, such as transistors and any integrated circuit, are active components,
because they need a power supply to operate correctly.