positive
positive Lexical Profile
positive Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Constructive, optimistic, or confident; focused on what is good, beneficial, or hopeful rather than what is unfavorable.
"Maintaining a positive attitude during recovery can significantly improve a patient's overall well-being."
Completely certain or convinced about a fact or statement, leaving no room for doubt.
"Are you positive that you locked the laboratory door before leaving last night?"
Showing the presence of a specific substance, microorganism, or medical condition for which a diagnostic test was conducted.
"The patient received a positive test result for strep throat and began a course of antibiotics."
In mathematics and physics, designating a quantity greater than zero, or having the electric charge characteristic of a proton (indicating a deficiency of electrons).
"Connect the red jumper cable to the positive terminal of the battery first."
• noun
A desirable, advantageous, or constructive quality, attribute, or outcome.
"When evaluating the job offer, she carefully weighed the positives against the long daily commute."
A diagnostic test result indicating the presence of the condition, substance, or pathogen being tested for.
"The screening protocol was redesigned to minimize the rate of false positives."
A photographic image in which the lights, shadows, and colors correspond to those of the original subject, as opposed to a negative.
"The archivist developed contact positives from the original nineteenth-century glass plate negatives."
Word Nuance & Usage
In everyday contexts, 'positive' carries a favorable or optimistic connotation, but in medical and scientific testing, a 'positive' result indicates the presence of a pathogen or condition and is typically undesirable.
• Rhymes for positive
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the 14th century from Old French 'positif', from Latin 'positivus' (settled by agreement, explicit), formed from 'positus', the past participle of 'ponere' (to put or place).