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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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

false-positive false positive

“An individual signal is not all that informative, but when they fire consistently over weeks or even months, the false-positive rate tends to go down,” Goepfert said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 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

Of course, so much of what’s otherwise known points a finger directly back at Taylor Farms, false-positive atom splitting notwithstanding, and there’s only so much the company can do to deflect.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 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

With the passage of two years’ time, it turns out that 35% of the patients whose Galleri test was initially thought to be just a false-positive, did indeed turn out to have cancer.

From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2025

In this group, it detected nearly 80% of liver cancer cases at a specificity slightly above 90%, corresponding to a false positive rate of less than 10%.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The FDA, however, doubled down on the severity of the investigation, saying in an X post that the false positive doesn’t change “the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms.”

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

But the agency reversed itself on Sunday, saying the result was a false positive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Food and Drug Administration stated, “To clarify, this false positive lab sample does not change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 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