Dictionary Definition
positive adj
1 characterized by or displaying affirmation or
acceptance or certainty etc.; "a positive attitude"; "the reviews
were all positive"; "a positive benefit"; "a positive demand" [ant:
negative, neutral]
2 having a positive electric charge; "protons are
positive" [syn: electropositive] [ant:
negative, neutral]
3 involving advantage or good; "a plus (or
positive) factor" [syn: plus]
4 indicating existence or presence of a suspected
condition or pathogen; "a positive pregnancy test" [syn: confirming] [ant: negative]
5 formally laid down or imposed; "positive laws"
[syn: prescribed]
6 impossible to deny or disprove;
"incontrovertible proof of the defendant's innocence"; "proof
positive"; "an irrefutable argument" [syn: incontrovertible,
irrefutable]
7 of or relating to positivism; "positivist
thinkers"; "positivist doctrine"; "positive philosophy" [syn:
positivist, positivistic]
8 greater than zero; "positive numbers"
9 marked by excessive confidence; "an arrogant
and cocksure materialist"; "so overconfident and impudent as to
speak to the queen"; "the less he knows the more positive he gets"
[syn: cocksure,
overconfident]
10 persuaded of; very sure; "were convinced that
it would be to their advantage to join"; "I am positive he is
lying"; "was confident he would win" [syn: convinced(p),
positive(p),
confident(p)]
11 granting what has been desired or requested;
"a favorable reply"; "a positive answer" [syn: favorable] n : a film showing
a photographic image whose tones correspond to those of the
original subject
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From Old (and modern) positif, or positivus, from the past participle stem of ponere ‘to place’. Compare posit.Pronunciation
- /ˈpɒzɪtɪv/
- Hyphenation: po·si·tive
Adjective
- Definitively laid down; explicitly stated; clearly expressed, precise, emphatic.
- Bacon:
- Positive words, that he would not bear arms against King Edward’s son.
- Bacon:
- Fully assured, confident; certain.
- I’m absolutely positive you've spelt that wrong.
- Overconfident, dogmatic.
- Pope:
- Some positive, persisting fops we know, That, if once wrong, will needs be always so.
- Pope:
- Describing the primary sense of an adjective or adverb; not
comparative or
superlative.
- ‘Better’ is an irregular comparative of the positive form ‘good’.
- Derived from an object by itself; not dependent on changing
circumstances or relations; absolute.
- The idea of beauty is not positive, but depends on the different tastes of individuals.
- Wholly what is expressed; colloquially downright, entire, outright.
- Good lord, you've built up a positive arsenal of weaponry here.
- Characterised by the existence or presence of qualities or
features, rather than by their absence.
- The box was not empty – I felt some positive substance within it.
- Characterised by the presence of features which support a
hypothesis.
- The results of our experiment are positive.
- Characterised by affirmation, constructiveness, or influence
for the better; favourable.
- He has a positive outlook on life.
- The first-night reviews were largely positive.
- Swift:
- a positive voice in legislation.
- He has a positive outlook on life.
- In the context of "chiefly|philosophy": Actual, real, concrete.
- Bacon:
- Positive good.
- Bacon:
- Of a visual image, true to the original in light, shade and
colour values.
- A positive photograph can be developed from a photographic negative.
- Having more protons than electrons.
- A cation is a positive ion as it has more protons than electrons.
- Of number, greater than zero.
- HIV positive.
Derived terms
Translations
definitely laid down
- Arabic:
- Chinese: 确定的 (quèdìng de)
- Dutch: positief
- Finnish: varma
- French: positif
- German: positiv
- Hungarian: biztos
- Italian: positivo
- Japanese: 明確な (めいかくな, meikakuna)
- Korean: 확실한 (hwaksilhan)
- Portuguese: positivo
- Russian: положительный (položítel’nyj)
- Spanish: positivo
- Swedish: positiv
fully assured, confident
- Finnish: varma
overconfident, dogmatic
- Finnish: varma
grammar: describing the primary sense of an
adjective or adverb
- Finnish: perusasteinen, perusmuotoinen
derived from an object by itself; absolute
- Finnish: absoluuttinen
downright, entire, outright
- Finnish: todellinen, varsinainen, kokonainen
characterised by the existence of qualities or
features
- Finnish: todellinen
characterised by features which support a
hypothesis
- Finnish: positiivinen
characterised by affirmation and
constructiveness
- Finnish: myönteinen, positiivinen
philosophy: actual, real, concrete
- Finnish: positiivinen
photography: of a visual image true to the
original
- Finnish: positiivinen
mathematics: greater than zero
- Czech: kladný
physics: having more protons than electrons
- Czech: kladný
- Finnish: positiivinen
slang: HIV positive
- Finnish: positiivinen
Noun
- A thing capable of being affirmed; something real or actual.
- A favourable point or characteristic.
- Something having a positive value in physics, such as an electric charge.
- An adjective or adverb in the positive degree.
- In the context of "photography": A positive image; one that displays true colors and shades, as opposed to a negative.
Derived terms
Translations
thing capable of being affirmed
- Finnish: tosiasia
favourable point or characteristic
thing having a positive value
adjective or adverb in the positive degree
- Finnish: positiivi, perusaste
photography: a positive image
- Finnish: positiivi
Adjective
positive- feminine of positif
Italian
Adjective
positive p- feminine of positivo
Extensive Definition
Positive is a property of positivity and may refer
to:
Mathematics and science
- Positive number, a number that is greater than 0
- Positive operator, in functional analysis, a bounded linear operator whose spectrum consists of positive real numbers
- Positive formula, a logical formula not containing negation
- Positive electric charge, in physics
- Converging lens or positive lens, in optics
- Positive test, a diagnostic test result that is indicative of an abnormality
- Positive sense, said of an RNA sequence that codes for a protein
Philosophy and humanities
- Positive science, for a general usage in humanities and social sciences
- Positivism, in philosophy, the name for theories which aim to be based on facts alone, eschewing metaphysics and religion
- Positive freedom, the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential
- Negative and positive rights, concerning the moral obligation of a person to do something for/to someone
- Positive statement, in economics, a (possibly incorrect) factual statement
- Positive economics, in economics, about predictions of behavior of economic actors, as opposed to the normative aspect
- Affirmative, in linguistics, is a non-negated expression, as opposed to negative. See grammatical polarity
- Positive (linguistics), the form of an adjective or adverb on which comparative and superlative are formed with suffixes or the use of more or less
- Affirmative (policy debate), the team which affirms the resolution
- Positive law is man-made law (statutes) in contrast with natural law (derived from God or morality)
- A positive image, in photography, is one in which the value (lightness–darkness) correlates positively with that in the scene depicted
- Positive (film), a short film in Hindi on HIV and AIDS
Other uses
- Positive sign, in western astrology, the supposedly extroverted personalities of the fire and air signs
See also
- Negative (disambiguation)
- Normative
- Optimism
- Positive organ
- Negative (photography), as opposed to positive images used in such applications as slide projection or photo emulsion stencil-making
- HIV positive people
positive in German: Positiv
positive in French: Positif
positive in Dutch: Positief
positive in Portuguese: Positivo
positive in Vietnamese: Dương
positive in Chinese: 陽
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Ditto copy, Photostat, Xerox, Xerox copy, absolute, accented, accentuated, accordant, actual, admitting no exception,
affirmative,
affirmatory,
agreeable, agreeing, aidful, algorismic, algorithmic, aliquot, all-out, answerable, apodictic, arbitrary, arrant, arrogant, assertative, assertional, assertive, assured, at one, auspicious, authentic, believing, beneficial, bigoted, blind, blowup, blueprint, bound, cardinal, categorical, certain, cheerful, classical, clear, clear and distinct, clear
as day, clear-cut, cocksure, coexistent, coexisting, coherent, coincident, coinciding, commensurate, compatible, complete, complimentary, conceited, conclusive, concordant, concurring, conducive, confident, confirming, conformable, congenial, congruent, congruous, consentaneous, consentient, consistent, consonant, constructive, consummate, contact print,
contact printing, contributory, convinced, convincing, cooperating, cooperative, correspondent, corresponding, crass, cyanotype, de facto, deaf, decided, decimal, decisive, declarative, declaratory, definite, definitive, despotic, determinate, determined, devout, dictatorial, differential, digital, doctrinaire, doctrinarian, dogmatic, dogmatizing, doubtless, downright, egregious, emphasized, emphatic, en rapport, encouraging, energetic, enlargement, enthusiastic, entire, equivalent, even, explicit, exponential, express, factual, faithful, favorable, fideistic, figural, figurate, figurative, final, finite, firm, fixed, flagrant, flat, flat-out, for real, forceful, forcible, fractional, functional, furthersome, genuine, glaring, global, glossy, good for, gross, hard, hard-nosed, harmonious, hectograph copy,
helpful, historical, hologram, honest-to-God,
hubristic, imaginary, impair, imperious, implicit, impossible, impress, impressed with,
impression, in
accord, in agreement, in rapport, in red letters, in sync, in
synchronization, inaccordance, inappealable, incontestable, incontrovertible,
indisputable,
indubitable,
ineluctable,
inevitable, infinite, inharmony, integral, intolerable, irrational, irrefutable, italicized, lantern slide,
like-minded, logarithmic, logometric, matte, matter-of-fact, microcopy, microprint, mimeograph copy,
minus, necessary, negative, numeral, numerary, numerative, numeric, obdurate, obstinate, odd, of a piece, of like mind, of
one mind, offprint, on
all fours, opinionated, opinionative, opinioned, optimistic, oracular, ordinal, out-and-out, outright, overconfident, oversure, overweening, pair, peremptory, perfect, perfectly sure,
persuaded, persuasive, photocopy, photograph, photogravure, photostatic
copy, pietistic,
pigheaded, pious, pistic, plus, pointed, poised, pompous, pontifical, positivistic, possible, practical, pragmatical, precious, predestined, predetermined, predicational, predicative, prime, print, productive, profitable, profound, projection printing,
promising, pronounced, pronunciative, proof, proper, propitious, proportionate, proud, punctuated, radical, rank, rational, real, realistic, reasonable, reassured, reassuring, reciprocal, reconcilable, regular, reliable, remedial, reprint, round, salutary, satisfied, secure, self-assured,
self-confident, self-consistent, self-important, self-opinionated,
self-opinioned, self-reliant, semi-matte, serviceable, shattering, sheer, shocking, slide, sold on, sound, specific, stark, stark-staring, starred, stat, straight, straight-out,
stressed, stubborn, submultiple, substantial, superlative, supportive, surd, sure, sure-enough, surpassing, symbiotic, synchronized, synchronous, the veriest,
therapeutic,
thorough, thoroughgoing, total, transcendental, transparency, true, unafraid, unambiguous, unanimous, unbearable, uncircumscribed,
unconditional,
unconditioned,
unconscionable,
uncontestable,
uncontested,
undeniable, under the
impression, underlined, underscored, undoubtful, undoubting, unequivocal, unfaltering, unhampered, unhesitating, uniform, unisonant, unisonous, univocal, unlimited, unmistakable, unmitigated, unpersuadable, unqualified, unquestionable, unquestioned, unquestioning, unrelieved, unreserved, unrestricted, unspoiled, unwaivable, unwavering, upbeat, useful, utilitarian, utter, veritable, whole, without exception, without
reserve, yes