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.
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
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
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
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
These (roughly) $2,500 ceremonies are supposedly about encouraging “positive feelings” on the part of the single brides.
Why Singles Should Say ‘I Don’t’ to The Self-Marriage Movement|Tim Teeman|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As the sun set on Monday and the search was called off for the day, there had been no positive update on the possible wreckage.
The Presumed Crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Is Nothing Like MH370|Lennox Samuels|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the predial, peaceful routine of their days there is a positive similarity.
Sergeant York And His People|Sam Cowan
From the facts of modern leisure the positive character reacts toward novel activity.
The Women of Tomorrow|William Hard
He has been accused of a positive gusto for knives and bayonets, for redly dripping steel and spattered flesh.
Rudyard Kipling|John Palmer
For Agnes was positive that Barnabetta was guiltless of the final disappearance of the treasure trove.
The Corner House Girls' Odd Find|Grace Brooks Hill
Rise of temperature, within limits, enhances the excitability, and therefore the positive curvature under light.
Life Movements in Plants, Volume II, 1919|Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose
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
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
grammardenoting the usual form of an adjective as opposed to its comparative or superlative form
biologyindicating 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
mainlyUS(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
economicsof or denoting an analysis that is free of ethical, political, or value judgments
astrologyof, 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
mathsa quantity greater than zero
photoga print or slide showing a photographic image whose colours or tones correspond to those of the original subject
grammarthe positive degree of an adjective or adverb
a positive object, such as a terminal or plate in a voltaic cell
music
Also called: positive organa medieval nonportable organ with one manual and no pedalsCompare portative organ
a variant spelling of positif
Compare negative
Derived forms of positive
positivenessorpositivity, noun
Word Origin for positive
C13: from Late Latin positīvus positive, agreed on an arbitrary basis, from pōnere to place