positive

[ poz-i-tiv ]

/ ˈpɒz ɪ tɪv /

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See synonyms for: positive / positives / positiveness on Thesaurus.com

adjective

explicitly stated, stipulated, or expressed: a positive acceptance of the agreement.

admitting of no question: positive proof.

stated; express; emphatic: a positive denial.

confident in opinion or assertion; fully assured: He is positive that he will win the contest.

overconfident or dogmatic: The less he knows, the more positive he gets.

without relation to or comparison with other things; not relative or comparative; absolute.

Informal. downright; out-and-out: She's a positive genius.

determined by enactment or convention; arbitrarily laid down: positive law.

emphasizing what is laudable, hopeful, or to the good; constructive: a positive attitude toward the future; positive things to say about a painting.

encouraging or noting a healthy or balanced outlook toward something, especially toward sex and sexuality (used in combination):sex-positive attitudes;the body-positive movement;a gay-positive movie.

not speculative or theoretical; practical: a positive approach to the problem.

possessing an actual force, being, existence, etc.

Philosophy.

constructive and sure, rather than skeptical.
concerned with or based on matters of experience: positive philosophy.

showing or expressing approval or agreement; favorable: a positive reaction to the speech.

consisting in or characterized by the presence or possession of distinguishing or marked qualities or features (opposed to negative): Light is positive, darkness negative.

noting the presence of such qualities, as a term.

measured or proceeding in a direction assumed as beneficial, progressive, or auspicious: a positive upturn in the stock market.

Electricity.

of, relating to, or characterized by positive electricity.
indicating a point in a circuit that has a higher potential than that of another point, the current flowing from the point of higher potential to the point of lower potential.

of, relating to, or noting the north pole of a magnet.

Chemistry. (of an element or group) tending to lose electrons and become positively charged; basic.

Grammar. being, noting, or pertaining to the initial degree of the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, as the positive form good.Compare comparative (def. 4), superlative (def. 2).

Medicine/Medical.

(of blood, affected tissue, etc.) indicating the presence of a specified medical condition or substance:Her urine was positive for opiates.
(of a diagnostic test) indicating the presence of the medical condition or substance tested for:a positive test for tuberculosis.
(of a person) diagnosed as having a specified medical condition, or having a specified substance in the body (often used in combination):He's HIV positive.She tested positive for lupus.

Biochemistry. Rh factor.

Mathematics. noting a quantity greater than zero.

(of government) assuming control or regulation of activities beyond those involved merely with the maintenance of law and order.

Biology. oriented or moving toward the focus of excitation: a positive tropism.

Photography. denoting a print or transparency showing the brightness values as they are in the subject.

Machinery. noting or pertaining to a process or machine part having a fixed or certain operation, especially as the result of elimination of play, free motion, etc.: positive lubrication.

noun

something positive.

a positive quality or characteristic.

a positive quantity or symbol.

a positive test result:The athlete was disqualified from competing because his drug test came back a positive.

Grammar.

the positive degree.
a form in the positive, as good or smooth.

Photography. a positive image, as on a print or transparency.

OTHER WORDS FOR positive

1 explicit, unequivocal, categorical, clear, precise.

2 incontrovertible, indisputable.

4 unquestioning.

See synonyms for positive on Thesaurus.com

OPPOSITES FOR positive

1 indefinite.

2 doubtful.

4 unsure, uncertain, unconfident.

See antonyms for positive on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of positive

First recorded in 1250–1300; from Latin positīvus; replacing Middle English positif, from Middle French, from Latin, as above. See posit, -ive

OTHER WORDS FROM positive

pos·i·tive·ness, nouno·ver·pos·i·tive, adjectiveo·ver·pos·i·tive·ly, adverbo·ver·pos·i·tive·ness, noun

qua·si-pos·i·tive, adjectivequa·si-pos·i·tive·ly, adverbsu·per·pos·i·tive, adjectivesu·per·pos·i·tive·ly, adverbsu·per·pos·i·tive·ness, nounun·pos·i·tive, adjectiveun·pos·i·tive·ly, adverbun·pos·i·tive·ness, noun

Words nearby positive

positioner, positioning, position isomer, position line, position paper, positive, positive caster, positive column, positive crankcase ventilation, positive definite, positive discrimination

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

WHEN TO USE

What are other ways to say positive?

To be positive of something is to be fully assured of its truth or accuracy. How is positive different from certain, confident, and sure? Find out on Thesaurus.com.

How to use positive in a sentence

That’s either a positive or a negative, depending on how you weigh the evidence.
Which Players Have A Shot At Becoming WNBA Rookie Of The Year?|Howard Megdal|September 11, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
She hopes everyone will take the positives from distance learning with them when they go back to in-person classes.
Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning|Kathryn Hulick|September 11, 2020|Science News For Students
Federal defense attorney Jeremey Warren said although many of his clients in the facility have tested positive, it’s been difficult for him to get information about what’s happening inside.
Federal Jail Downtown Now Has One of the Country’s Worst COVID Outbreaks|Maya Srikrishnan|September 10, 2020|Voice of San Diego
I asked Thom Mayer if he thought the positive tests meant the season might be over before it could begin.
Why Can’t Schools Get What the N.F.L. Has? (Ep. 431)|Stephen J. Dubner|September 10, 2020|Freakonomics

It may be the thing that we get more positive comments about from customers than anything else.
Retail Jingle Bells to Ring Longer Than Ever Before|Charu Kasturi|September 9, 2020|Ozy
There was a lot of positive feedback from people interested in non-gender binary people.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But he, like many people using dating apps whatever their sexual identity, remains stoutly positive.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And the fact that satire unnerves the intolerant is evidence of its positive power.
Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo—And You Should Too|John Avlon|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The trials produced positive results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in November.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And more than that—the world is ending because of the changes that many of us see as positive.
The Evangelical Apocalypse Is All Your Fault|Jay Michaelson|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He was positive he had seen some one enter the room, go to the chair, and take the money from his pockets.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
At last his anxiety reached a point where he was positive that if he received an adverse decision, it would surely kill him.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
Some hidden magnetism burst from him like an aura, and his cold pasty face and light gray eyes flamed into positive beauty.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
It is a sensitive test, and, when positive, is absolute proof of the presence of blood.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
There is no proof positive that it was henceforth his invariable rule to put this kind of finish.
Antonio Stradivari|Horace William Petherick

British Dictionary definitions for positive

positive

/ (ˈpɒzɪtɪv) /

adjective

characterized by or expressing certainty or affirmationa positive answer

composed of or possessing actual or specific qualities; reala positive benefit

tending to emphasize what is good or laudable; constructivehe takes a very positive attitude when correcting pupils' mistakes

tending towards progress or improvement; moving in a beneficial direction

philosophy

constructive rather than sceptical
(of a concept) denoting the presence rather than the absence of some property

independent of circumstances; absolute or unqualified

(prenominal) informal (intensifier)a positive delight

maths

having a value greater than zeroa positive number
designating, consisting of, or graduated in one or more quantities greater than zeropositive direction

maths

measured in a direction opposite to that regarded as negative
having the same magnitude as but opposite sense to an equivalent negative quantity

grammar denoting the usual form of an adjective as opposed to its comparative or superlative form

biology indicating movement or growth towards a particular stimulus

physics

(of an electric charge) having an opposite polarity to the charge of an electron and the same polarity as the charge of a proton
(of a body, system, ion, etc) having a positive electric charge; having a deficiency of electronsa positive ion
(of a point in an electric circuit) having a higher electric potential than some other point with an assigned zero potential

short for electropositive

(of a lens) capable of causing convergence of a parallel beam of light

med (of the results of an examination or test) indicating the existence or presence of a suspected disorder or pathogenic organism

med (of the effect of a drug or therapeutic regimen) beneficial or satisfactory

short for Rh positive

(of a machine part) having precise motion with no hysteresis or backlash

mainly US (of a government) directly involved in activities beyond the minimum maintenance of law and order, such as social welfare or the organization of scientific research

economics of or denoting an analysis that is free of ethical, political, or value judgments

astrology of, relating to, or governed by the group of signs of the zodiac that belong to the air and fire classifications, which are associated with a self-expressive spontaneous nature

noun

something that is positive

maths a quantity greater than zero

photog a print or slide showing a photographic image whose colours or tones correspond to those of the original subject

grammar the positive degree of an adjective or adverb

a positive object, such as a terminal or plate in a voltaic cell

music

Also called: positive organ a medieval nonportable organ with one manual and no pedalsCompare portative organ
a variant spelling of positif

Compare negative

Derived forms of positive

positiveness or positivity, noun

Word Origin for positive

C13: from Late Latin positīvus positive, agreed on an arbitrary basis, from pōnere to place

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

Scientific definitions for positive

positive

[ pŏz′ĭ-tĭv ]

Greater than zero.

Having an electric charge or voltage greater than zero.

Indicating the presence of a disease, condition, or organism, as a diagnostic test.

positive

OTHER WORDS FOR positive

OPPOSITES FOR positive

Origin of positive

OTHER WORDS FROM positive

Words nearby positive

WHEN TO USE

What are other ways to say positive?

Words related to positive

How to use positive in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for positive

Derived forms of positive

Word Origin for positive

Scientific definitions for positive