Negative

How to spell negative

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce negative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does negative mean?

1. adjectiveExpressing denial, refusal, or the absence of something, or marked by pessimism and a lack of enthusiasm.
2. adjectiveShowing that a substance or condition being tested for is not present.
3. nounA developed piece of film in which the light and dark tones of the original scene are reversed.
4. nounA number less than zero.

Negative in a sentence

• adjective

  The committee gave a negative response to the funding request.

• adjective

  Her blood test came back negative, so the infection was ruled out.

• noun

  He found the original negative in an old envelope and had a print made.

• noun

  Subtracting the larger figure leaves a negative on the balance sheet.

• adjective

  His negative attitude at work began to affect the whole team.

• adjective

  The screening was negative and the doctor sent her home reassured.

Where does negative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin negativus, meaning 'that denies' or 'expressing a denial', which was built on the verb negare, 'to deny or say no'. That verb in turn rests on an old root meaning simply 'not', the same little negating element that also gives us 'negate', 'renege', and 'deny'. English took the word in during the late 1300s, at first through legal and grammatical writing where a 'negative' was a statement that contradicted or refused something. From that core idea of saying no, the meaning branched out over the centuries: into mathematics for numbers below zero, into electricity for one kind of charge, into photography for an image with reversed tones, and into everyday speech for a gloomy or unhelpful attitude. The spelling stays close to its Latin parent, and the trap for writers is the unstressed middle vowel, the schwa in 'neg-A-tive', which sounds like almost nothing yet must be written as an 'a'.

How the word is built

• neg- (from Latin negare: to deny, say no)
• -ative (adjective/noun suffix forming a quality)