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  false positive

  noun

  a result in a medical test that wrongly indicates the presence of the condition being tested for

false-positive

American  

[fawls-poz-i-tiv] / ˈfɔlsˈpɒz ɪ tɪv /

noun

1. Medicine/Medical.

   1. a test result that is incorrect because the test indicated a condition or finding that does not exist.

      a false-positive for syphilis.

   2. a person who receives this test result.

2. 1. any screening test result that incorrectly detected or classified a person or thing.

      A false-positive at the airport could cause you to miss your flight.

   2. a person or thing identified by such a test.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or being a false-positive.

   The test has a false-positive rate of 4%.

false positive British  

noun

1. a result in a medical test that wrongly indicates the presence of the condition being tested for

2. a person from whom such a result is obtained

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Etymology

Origin of false-positive

First recorded in 1910–15

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

false-positive false positive

There are also worries about the costs and anxiety that can accompany a false-positive test.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

But the government retracted that position less than 24-hours later, saying on Sunday that it was a false-positive.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

A spokesman for Dadss says the technology is still being tested and improved, so it is too early to estimate a hypothetical false-positive rate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

When I asked—a little hesitantly—she told me that she’s phased out the DRE for her patients in favor of a blood test that, while not foolproof, is less likely to result in false-positive results.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2024

"The reading workload is further compounded when screening programs employ double reading to improve cancer detection and decrease false-positive recalls."

From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2024

In July, the FDA announced that a lettuce sample had tested positive for cyclospora, then corrected the finding as a false positive.

From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2026

A false positive can send someone into scans and biopsies they never needed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

Many tools publish percentage figures about their accuracy, but the figures are impossible to verify and do not take into account the risk of a false positive.

From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026

The company has made claims about its accuracy that strain my own credulity; a Pangram blog post last year stated that it had a “1 in 10,000 false positive rate.”

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

The calculation is similar to the one on false positive results in drug testing, and, like it, demonstrates that misinterpreting fractions can be a matter of life and death.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

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