Positive

How to spell positive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce positive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does positive mean?

1. adjectiveHopeful, confident, or showing a constructive and favourable attitude.
2. adjectiveCompletely sure or having no doubt about something.
3. adjectiveIndicating the presence of a condition, substance, or reaction in a test.

Positive in a sentence

• She kept a positive outlook even during the long job search.

• He was positive that he had locked the front door before leaving.

• Her blood test came back positive for the infection.

• The manager gave positive feedback on the draft proposal.

• The witness seemed positive about the time of the accident.

• A positive result meant she had to repeat the screening.

Where does positive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Positive comes from the Latin positivus, meaning 'settled by agreement' or 'formally laid down', which was built on positus, the past participle of ponere, 'to place or set down'. The earliest English uses in the 1300s, borrowed through Old French, were legal and technical: a 'positive' law was one expressly stated rather than merely assumed, in contrast with natural law. From the idea of something firmly fixed grew the sense of being certain or sure, and from there the modern flavours of affirmative, favourable, and optimistic. The same ponere root sits inside a whole family of everyday words, including 'position', 'deposit', and 'compose', which is a useful reminder that the middle is spelled with an s, not a z, even though it sounds like one.

How the word is built

• posit- (from Latin positus: placed, set down)
• -ive (adjective suffix)