negative

English Online Dictionary. What means negative‎? What does negative mean?

English

Alternative forms

• −ve (abbreviation)

Etymology

From Middle English negative, negatif, from Old French negatif, from Latin negātīvus (“that denies, negative”), from negāre (“to deny”); see negate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛɡətɪv/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛɡətɪv/, /-ɾɪv/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈneɡətɪv/, /-ɾɪv/
• Hyphenation: neg‧a‧tive

Adjective

negative (comparative more negative, superlative most negative)

1. Not positive nor neutral.

   Synonyms: bad, deleterious; see also Thesaurus:bad

   Antonyms: good; see also Thesaurus:good
2. (physics) Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles [from the 18th c.]
3. (mathematics) Of a number: less than zero.

   Antonyms: positive, nonnegative

   Hypernyms: nonzero, nonnegative

   1. (weather) Less than zero degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.

4. (linguistics, logic) Denying a proposition; negating a concept.

   Synonym: negatory

   Antonyms: affirmative; intensifying, intensive, intensitive

5. Damaging; undesirable; unfavourable.

6. (often used pejoratively) Pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things.

7. Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.
8. (chemistry) Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.

9. (New Age jargon, derogatory) Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted.
   • 2011, Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit, [1]

     The threat of negative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.
10. Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.
11. (slang) HIV negative.
    • quoted in 2013, William I. Johnston, HIV-Negative: How the Uninfected Are Affected by AIDS (page 145)

      We certainly told him at that time that I was negative. We talked about transmission. We told him we don't do anything that would cause me to become positive.

12. (slang) COVID-19 negative.
13. (hyperbolic) No, not any, zero.

Synonyms

• (damaging): undesirable

Antonyms

• positive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

negative (plural negatives)

1. Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto [from 15th c.]
2. An unfavorable point or characteristic.
3. (law) A right of veto.
   • 1787, Luther Martin, cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391

     And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.

   • 1788, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, no. 68

     The qualified negative of the President differs widely from this absolute negative of the British sovereign; […]

   • 1983, INS v. Chadha, Opinion of the Court

     In the convention there does not seem to have been much diversity of opinion on the subject of the propriety of giving to the president a negative on the laws.

4. (photography) An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse. [from 19th c.]

   Antonym: positive

   Coordinate term: diapositive

5. (grammar) A word that indicates negation.
6. (mathematics) A negative quantity.
7. (weightlifting) A repetition performed with a weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle movement.
8. The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.
9. (logic) A statement that something didn’t happen or doesn’t exist.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

negative (third-person singular simple present negatives, present participle negativing, simple past and past participle negatived)

1. (transitive) To refuse; to veto.
2. (transitive) To contradict.
3. (transitive) To disprove.
4. (transitive) To make ineffective; to neutralize, to negate.

Derived terms

• negativation

Interjection

negative

1. (law, signalling) No; nay.

Antonyms

• affirmative

Anagrams

• agentive, gate vein, veganite

Albanian

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. feminine singular
   2. feminine plural

Danish

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite attributive positive degree/superlative degree
   2. plural

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ne.ɡaˈti.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: ne‧ga‧tì‧ve

Adjective

negative f pl

1. feminine plural of negativo

Noun

negative f

1. plural of negativa

Anagrams

• agentive, negatevi, vengiate

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ne.ɡaːˈtiː.u̯e/, [nɛɡäːˈt̪iːu̯ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ne.ɡaˈti.ve/, [neɡäˈt̪iːve]

Adjective

negātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of negātīvus

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Portuguese

Verb

negative

1. inflection of negativar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Swedish

Adjective

negative

1. definite natural masculine singular of negativ