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positive

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Having or displaying affirmation or acceptance or certainty etc.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pahzuhtiv

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɑzətɪv

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

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

  2. Included, present, characterized by affirmation.

  3. chiefly philosophy

    Actual, real, concrete, not theoretical or speculative.

  4. Stated definitively and without qualification.

  5. Characterized by constructiveness or influence for the better.

  6. Derived from an object by itself; not dependent on changing circumstances or relations.

noun

  1. A thing capable of being affirmed; something real or actual.

  2. A favourable point or characteristic.

  3. The positive plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

  4. A positive result of a test.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Characterized by or displaying affirmation or acceptance or certainty etc.

Used this way, positive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use positive

  • “A positive attitude.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Derived

positive correlationpositive relationship

Other combinations

positive feedbackpositive lawpositive reinforcementpositive effectpositive sidepositive attitude

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • positive polenounCompound term

    The terminal of a battery that is connected to the positive plate.

  • positive reinforcernounCompound term

    A reinforcing stimulus that serves to increase the likelihood of the response that produces it.

  • positive reinforcing stimulusnounCompound term

    A reinforcing stimulus that serves to increase the likelihood of the response that produces it.

  • positive stimulusnounCompound term

    A stimulus with desirable consequences.

  • positive chargenounCompound term

    Having a deficiency of electrons.

  • positive chemotaxisnounCompound term

    Movement toward a chemical stimulus.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • positronnounRelated term

    An elementary particle with positive charge.

  • positivitynounRelated term

    The character of the positive electric pole.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.