positive definite

American  

adjective

Mathematics.

1. (of a quadratic form) positive for all real values of the variables, where the values are not all zero.

2. (of a matrix) displaying the coefficients of a positive definite quadratic form.

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Other Word Forms

• positive definiteness noun

Etymology

Origin of positive definite

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

They imply a confession of lack of such wisdom as would enable me to make positive definite proposals.

From Project Gutenberg

The significance of this early period lies in the fact that, in the positive, definite system of Christianity, systematic thought, which was fast becoming disorganized and sceptical, found a center about which it might rally and focus itself, and the scattered fragments of philosophy were all collected together, by either friends or foes, about the new religion.

From Project Gutenberg

There ought to be some very quick, positive, definite answer.

From Project Gutenberg

Nearly at the same time an important change passed over her religious views, and the vague deism of her youth deepened into a positive, definite, and earnest Christianity, but without mysticism and without intolerance.

From Project Gutenberg

Resistance to royal absolutism, culminating in the acknowledged ascendancy of Parliament and the triumphant aristocracy of 1688, was never based on abstract principles of the rights of barons and landowners, but sprang from the positive, definite conviction that those who furnished arms and men for the king, or who paid certain moneys in taxation, were entitled to be heard in the councils of the king; and the charters given in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—from Henry I. to Henry III.—confirmed this conviction.

From Project Gutenberg