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Definition of positiveness - 5 dictionary results

pos⋅i⋅tive

  [poz-i-tiv]
Use positiveness in a Sentence
–adjective
1. explicitly stated, stipulated, or expressed: a positive acceptance of the agreement.
2. admitting of no question: positive proof.
3. stated; express; emphatic: a positive denial.
4. confident in opinion or assertion; fully assured: He is positive that he will win the contest.
5. overconfident or dogmatic: The less he knows, the more positive he gets.
6. without relation to or comparison with other things; not relative or comparative; absolute.
7. Informal. downright; out-and-out: She's a positive genius.
8. determined by enactment or convention; arbitrarily laid down: positive law.
9. emphasizing what is laudable, hopeful, or to the good; constructive: a positive attitude toward the future; positive things to say about a painting.
10. not speculative or theoretical; practical: a positive approach to the problem.
11. possessing an actual force, being, existence, etc.
12. Philosophy.
a. constructive and sure, rather than skeptical.
b. concerned with or based on matters of experience: positive philosophy.
13. showing or expressing approval or agreement; favorable: a positive reaction to the speech.
14. consisting in or characterized by the presence or possession of distinguishing or marked qualities or features (opposed to negative ): Light is positive, darkness negative.
15. noting the presence of such qualities, as a term.
16. measured or proceeding in a direction assumed as beneficial, progressive, or auspicious: a positive upturn in the stock market.
17. Electricity.
a. of, pertaining to, or characterized by positive electricity.
b. 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.
18. of, pertaining to, or noting the north pole of a magnet.
19. Chemistry. (of an element or group) tending to lose electrons and become positively charged; basic.
20. 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).
21. Medicine/Medical.
a. (of blood, affected tissue, etc.) showing the presence of disease.
b. (of a diagnostic test) indicating disease.
22. Biochemistry. Rh factor.
23. Mathematics. noting a quantity greater than zero.
24. (of government) assuming control or regulation of activities beyond those involved merely with the maintenance of law and order.
25. Biology. oriented or moving toward the focus of excitation: a positive tropism.
26. Photography. denoting a print or transparency showing the brightness values as they are in the subject.
27. Machinery. noting or pertaining to a process or machine part having a fixed or certain operation, esp. as the result of elimination of play, free motion, etc.: positive lubrication.
–noun
28. something positive.
29. a positive quality or characteristic.
30. a positive quantity or symbol.
31. Grammar.
a. the positive degree.
b. a form in the positive, as good or smooth.
32. Photography. a positive image, as on a print or transparency.
Origin:
1250–1300; < L positīvus; r. ME positif < MF < L, as above. See posit, -ive

Related forms:
pos⋅i⋅tive⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. definite, unequivocal, categorical, clear, precise, sure. 2. incontrovertible, indisputable. 4. unquestioning. 4, 5. See sure.

Antonyms:
1. indefinite. 2. doubtful. 4. unsure, unconfident, uncertain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To positiveness
pos·i·tive   (pŏz'ĭ-tĭv)   
adj.  

  1. Characterized by or displaying certainty, acceptance, or affirmation: a positive answer; positive criticism.

  2. Measured or moving forward or in a direction of increase or progress.

  3. Explicitly or openly expressed or laid down: a positive demand.

  4. Admitting of no doubt; irrefutable: positive proof.

    1. Very sure; confident: I'm positive he's right. See Synonyms at sure.

    2. Overconfident; dogmatic.

    3. Of or relating to positivism.

    4. Of or relating to laws imposed by human authority rather than by nature or reason alone: "the glaring discrepancy between American positive law and natural rights" (David Brion Davis).

    5. Of or relating to religion based on revelation rather than on nature or reason alone.

    6. Relating to or designating a quantity greater than zero.

    7. Relating to or designating the sign (+).

    8. Relating to or designating a quantity, number, angle, or direction opposite to another designated as negative.

  6. Formally or arbitrarily determined; prescribed.

  7. Concerned with practical rather than theoretical matters.

  8. Composed of or characterized by the presence of particular qualities or attributes; real.

  9. Philosophy

    1. Of or relating to positivism.

    2. Of or relating to laws imposed by human authority rather than by nature or reason alone: "the glaring discrepancy between American positive law and natural rights" (David Brion Davis).

    3. Of or relating to religion based on revelation rather than on nature or reason alone.

    4. Relating to or designating a quantity greater than zero.

    5. Relating to or designating the sign (+).

    6. Relating to or designating a quantity, number, angle, or direction opposite to another designated as negative.

  10. Informal Utter; absolute: a positive darling.

  11. Mathematics

    1. Relating to or designating a quantity greater than zero.

    2. Relating to or designating the sign (+).

    3. Relating to or designating a quantity, number, angle, or direction opposite to another designated as negative.

  12. Physics Relating to or designating an electric charge of a sign opposite to that of an electron.

  13. Medicine Indicating the presence of a particular disease, condition, or organism: a positive test for pregnancy.

  14. Biology Indicating or characterized by response or motion toward the source of a stimulus, such as light: positive tropism.

  15. Having the areas of light and dark in their original and normal relationship, as in a photographic print made from a negative.

  16. Grammar Of, relating to, or being the simple uncompared degree of an adjective or adverb, as opposed to either the comparative or superlative.

  17. Driven by or generating power directly through intermediate machine parts having little or no play: positive drive.

n.  

  1. An affirmative element or characteristic.

  2. Mathematics A quantity greater than zero.

  3. Physics A positive electric charge.

  4. A photographic image in which the lights and darks appear as they do in nature.

  5. Grammar

    1. The uncompared degree of an adjective or adverb.

    2. A word in this degree.

  6. Music A division of some pipe organs, similar in sound to the great but smaller and less powerful.


[Middle English, having a specified quality, from Old French positif, from Latin positīvus, formally laid down, from positus, past participle of pōnere, to place; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]
pos'i·tive·ly adv., pos'i·tive·ness, pos'i·tiv'i·ty n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

positive 
c.1300, a legal term meaning "formally laid down," from O.Fr. positif (13c.), from L. positivus "settled by arbitrary agreement, positive" (opposed to naturalis "natural"), from positus, pp. of ponere "put, place" (see position). Sense broadened to "expressed without qualification" (1598), then "confident in opinion" (1665); mathematical use is from 1704; in electricity, 1755. Psychological sense of "concentrating on what is constructive and good" is recorded from 1916. Positivism (1847) is the philosophy of Auguste Comte, who published "Philosophie positive" in 1830.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 2positive
Function: noun
: a positive photograph or a print from a negative
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

positive pos·i·tive (pŏz'ĭ-tĭv)
adj.

  1. Characterized by or displaying certainty, acceptance, or affirmation.

  2. Indicating the presence of a particular disease, condition, or organism.

  3. Indicating or characterized by response or motion toward the source of a stimulus, such as light.

  4. Relating to or designating electric charge of a sign opposite to that of an electron.

pos'i·tive·ness or pos'i·tiv'i·ty n.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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