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affirmative

[uh-fur-muh-tiv]
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adjective
  1. affirming or assenting; asserting the truth, validity, or fact of something.
  2. expressing agreement or consent; assenting: an affirmative reply.
  3. positive; not negative.
  4. Logic. noting a proposition in which a property of a subject is affirmed, as “All men are happy.”
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noun
  1. something that affirms or asserts; a positive statement or proposition; affirmation.
  2. a reply indicating assent, as Yes or I do.
  3. a manner or mode that indicates assent: a reply in the affirmative.
  4. the side, as in a debate, that affirms or defends a statement that the opposite side denies or attacks: to speak for the affirmative.
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interjection
  1. (used to indicate agreement, assent, etc.): “Is this the right way to Lake George?” “Affirmative.”
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Origin of affirmative

1400–50; < Latin affirmātīvus, equivalent to affirmāt- (see affirmation) + -īvus -ive; replacing late Middle English affirmatyff < Middle French < Latin
Related formsaf·firm·a·tive·ly, adverbo·ver·af·firm·a·tive, adjectiveo·ver·af·firm·a·tive·ly, adverbpre·af·firm·a·tive, adjectivequa·si-af·firm·a·tive, adjectivequa·si-af·firm·a·tive·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for affirmatively

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • So much is shown, affirmatively and negatively, by the election.

  • These were questions which occurred to everyone, and many answered them affirmatively.

    The River War

    Winston S. Churchill

  • If affirmatively, George supposes again that there's an end of it.

    Ginger-Snaps

    Fanny Fern

  • Yet she had said it, and women do not lie (affirmatively) about such a matter.

    Joan of the Sword Hand

    S(amuel) R(utherford) Crockett

  • My own mind was fully made up on that point, and affirmatively so.

    Parasites

    T. Spencer Cobbold

British Dictionary definitions for affirmatively

affirmative

adjective
  1. confirming or asserting something as true or validan affirmative statement
  2. indicating agreement or assentan affirmative answer
  3. logic
    1. (of a categorial proposition) affirming the satisfaction by the subject of the predicate, as in all birds have feathers; some men are married
    2. not containing negationCompare negative (def. 12)
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noun
  1. a positive assertion
  2. a word or phrase stating agreement or assent, such as yes (esp in the phrase answer in the affirmative)
  3. logic an affirmative proposition
  4. the affirmative mainly US and Canadian the side in a debate that supports the proposition
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sentence substitute
  1. military a signal codeword used to express assent or confirmation
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Derived Formsaffirmatively, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for affirmatively

adv.

mid-15c., from affirmative + -ly (2).

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affirmative

adj.

"answering 'yes,'" mid-15c., from use in logic; from Middle French affirmatif (13c.), from Latin affirmativus, from affirmat-, past participle stem of affirmare (see affirm). As a noun from early 15c. Affirmative action "positive or corrective effort by employers to prevent discrimination in hiring or promotion" is attested from 1935 with regard to labor unions; specific racial sense is from 1961; now often used more generally in reference to hiring quotas, etc.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper