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• false-positive
  false-positive

  noun
• false positive
  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

Finding a false-positive was not unordinary, Diez-Gonzalez said.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

Pangram claims a false-positive rate of 1 in 10,000 for all forms of writing and 1 in 100,000 for news articles, based on a test of content published before ChatGPT’s 2022 debut.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

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

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

However, not everyone in this target group receives these scans, and the high false-positive rate of the scans can lead to unnecessary, invasive tests.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 5, 2024

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

On X, the FDA 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. 24, 2026

Then, on Sunday, the story got much stranger when the FDA announced that the sample provided by “Taylor Farms de Mexico,” which had initially tested positive, was actually a false positive.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 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