English Explanatory Dictionary

positive

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Included, present, characterized by affirmation.
  2. Formally laid down.
  3. Stated definitively and without qualification.
  4. Fully assured in opinion.
  5. Greater than zero.
  6. Greater than or equal to zero.
  7. Characterized by constructiveness or influence for the better.
  8. Overconfident, dogmatic.
  9. Actual, real, concrete, not theoretical or speculative.
  10. Having more protons than electrons.
  11. Describing the primary sense of an adjective, adverb or noun; not comparative, superlative, augmentative nor diminutive.
  12. Describing a verb that is not negated, especially in languages which have distinct positive and negative verb forms, e.g., Finnish.
noun
  1. A thing capable of being affirmed; something real or actual.
  2. A favourable point or characteristic.
  3. Something having a positive value in physics, such as an electric charge.
  4. A degree of comparison of adjectives and adverbs.
  5. An adjective or adverb in the positive degree.
  6. A positive image; one that displays true colors and shades, not their opposites or complements.
  7. The positive plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.
  8. A positive result of a test.

Pronunciation

pŏzʹĭ-tĭv /ˈpɑzɪtɪv/ /-ɾɪv/ En-us-positive.ogg /ˈpɒzɨtɪv/

Word forms

positive more positive most positive +ve positives

Etymology

From Old French positif, from Latin positivus, from the past participle stem of ponere (“to place”). Compare posit.

Synonyms

certain sure wis nonnegative absolute good acceptable agreeable all right amazing as fine as Dick's hatband awesome beatific bene blissful bodacious bona brilliant celestial commendable cool dandy as candy decent delightful divine enjoyable excellent exceptional fabulous fantastic fine goated goloptious good as wheat in the bin gratifying great heavenlike heavenly incredible lovely magnificent marvelous neat nice not bad outstanding perfect phenomenal pleasant pleasing positive rad radical right as rain satisfying solid splendid stellar stupendous super

Antonyms

uncertain unsure negative nonpositive bad abysmal atrocious awful chronic coarse corny crap crapalicious crappy crummy deityforsaken dire disagreeable dismal dogshit dreadful fifth-rate foul fourth-rate godawful hellish hideous hopeless horrendous horrid horrible horrific inadequate incompetent inelegant intolerable inferior lackluster loathsome lousy miserable naff odious ordinary pathetic peak piss-poor rotten rubbish shitawful shitty sixth-rate sloppy subpar terrible unfavorable wack

Derived words

A positive body-positive contrapositive copositive copropositive COVID-positive cytopositive diapositive dipositive false positive geopositive gram-positive HIV-positive homopositive hydropositive I am HIV positive immunofluoropositive immunopositive interpositive juxtapositive limit of positive stability look on the positive side multipositive nature-positive overpositive pawsitive photopositive police positive posi- posistor positive action positive airway pressure positive assortative mating positive atheist positive column positive contribution positive control positive crystal positive-definite positive degree positive discrimination positive displacement pump positive drainage positive economics positive edge positive-edge-triggered positive edge-triggered positive education positive electricity positive eugenics positive eyepiece positive feedback positive law positive linear functional positive logic positive lookahead positive lookaround positive lookbehind positively positive material identification

Translations

Armenian: դրական Bulgarian: положителен Esperanto: pozitiva Georgian: დადებითი Georgian: პოზიტიური German: positiv Greek: θετικός Hungarian: pozitív Hungarian: kedvező Hungarian: helyeslő Hungarian: támogató Hungarian: igenlő Hungarian: biztató Irish: deimhneach Russian: положи́тельный Russian: позити́вный Serbo-Croatian: pozitivan Slovak: pozitívny Slovak: kladný Finnish: positiivinen
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