negative (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

Direct Cross-Language Association: “negative” in German

This word also exists in German! Meaning: “inflection of negativ:”

View German Entry →

negative

EN • English

//ˈnɛɡ.ə.tɪv//

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

[DE]negativ [DE]Negativfilm

Definitions & Usage

adjective

Not positive or neutral; bad; undesirable; unfavourable.

Example: “The high exchange rate will have a negative effect on our profits.”

Example: “Customers didn’t like it: feedback was mostly negative.”

Synonyms:

bad undesirable abysmal atrocious awful chronic coarse corny

adjective

(mathematics) Of a number: less than zero.

adjective

(medicine) Of a test result: not positive, not detected.

Example: “negative detection of.”

adjective

(physics) Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles

adjective

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

Synonyms:

negatory

adjective

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

Example: “I don’t like to hang around him very much because he can be so negative about his petty problems.”

adjective

Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.

adjective

(chemistry) Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.

Example: “The nitro group is negative.”

adjective

(New Age jargon, derogatory) Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted.

Example: “2011, Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hf5qEW9n_fsC&pg=PT109&dq=positive+feelings&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MkX-T8PQCo6KmQXjr4GhBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=unwanted%20feelings&f=false 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.”

adjective

#10

Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.

adjective

#11

(slang) HIV negative.

Example: “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.”

adjective

#12

(slang) COVID-19 negative.

adjective

#13

(hyperbolic) No, not any, zero.

noun

#14

Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto

noun

#15

An unfavorable point or characteristic.

noun

#16

(law) A right of veto.

Example: “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.”

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

noun

#17

(photography) An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse.

noun

#18

(grammar) A word that indicates negation.

noun

#19

(mathematics) A negative quantity.

noun

#20

(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.

noun

#21

The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

noun

#22

(logic) A statement that something didn’t happen or doesn’t exist.

Example: “You can’t prove a negative.”

verb

#23

(transitive) To refuse; to veto.

verb

#24

(transitive) To contradict.

verb

#25

(transitive) To disprove.

verb

#26

(transitive) To make ineffective; to neutralize; to negate.

interjection

#27

(law, signalling) No; nay.

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

“Negative feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (negative energy).”

— 2009, Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, John Wiley & Sons, page 15:

“If you have been badly affected by negative energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attracts negative energy and will draw it away from you.”

— 2011, Anne Jones, Healing Negative Energies, Hachette, page 118:

“The negative contact we get inside here [prison] is enough to make you even more bitter and further alienated from society and ourselves.”

— 1982 August 14, Renee Holmes, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 5, page 15: