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Positiveness

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
pos·i·tive  (pz-tv)
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.
5.
a. Very sure; confident: I'm positive he's right. See Synonyms at sure.
b. Overconfident; dogmatic.
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
a. Of or relating to positivism.
b. 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.
c. Of or relating to religion based on revelation rather than on nature or reason alone.
10. Informal Utter; absolute: a positive darling.
11. Mathematics
a. Relating to or designating a quantity greater than zero.
b. Relating to or designating the sign (+).
c. 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
a. The uncompared degree of an adjective or adverb.
b. 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 positvus, formally laid down, from positus, past participle of pnere, to place; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]

posi·tive·ly adv.
posi·tive·ness, posi·tivi·ty n.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.positiveness - the character of the positive electric pole
polarity, sign - having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges); "he got the polarity of the battery reversed"; "charges of opposite sign"
negativeness, negativity - the character of the negative electric pole
2.positiveness - a quality or state characterized by certainty or acceptance or affirmation and dogmatic assertiveness
quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare
assertiveness, self-assertiveness - aggressive self-assurance; given to making bold assertions
negativism, negativity, negativeness - characterized by habitual skepticism and a disagreeable tendency to deny or oppose or resist suggestions or commands
3.positiveness - the quality of being encouraging or promising of a successful outcome
advantage, vantage - the quality of having a superior or more favorable position; "the experience gave him the advantage over me"
auspiciousness, propitiousness - the favorable quality of strongly indicating a successful result
4.positiveness - an amount greater than zero
amount - the relative magnitude of something with reference to a criterion; "an adequate amount of food for four people"
negativeness, negativity - an amount less than zero
5.positiveness - the quality of being undeniable and not worth arguing about
indisputability, indubitability, unquestionability, unquestionableness - the quality of being beyond question or dispute or doubt


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And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as positive as twice two makes four, and such positiveness is not life, gentlemen, but is the beginning of death.
This project could not be of any great expense to the public; and might in my poor opinion, be of much use for the despatch of business, in those countries where senates have any share in the legislative power; beget unanimity, shorten debates, open a few mouths which are now closed, and close many more which are now open; curb the petulancy of the young, and correct the positiveness of the old; rouse the stupid, and damp the pert.
The great qualities, then, of his essays and his 'History' are those which give success to the best sort of popular oratory--dramatic vividness and clearness, positiveness, and vigorous, movement and interest.
 
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