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say it: NEG-uh-tiv
negative is an adjective, noun and verb meaning "characterized by or displaying negation or denial or opposition or resistance; having no positive features". It is pronounced /ˈnɛɡətɪv/ — NEG-uh-tiv. It carries 12 recorded senses.
characterized by or displaying negation or denial or opposition or resistance; having no positive features
“a negative outlook on life”
“a colorless negative personality”
“a negative evaluation”
“a negative reaction to an advertising campaign”
expressing or consisting of a negation or refusal or denial
having the quality of something harmful or unpleasant
“ran a negative campaign”
“delinquents retarded by their negative outlook on life”
not indicating the presence of microorganisms or disease or a specific condition
“the HIV test was negative”
medicine
reckoned in a direction opposite to that regarded as positive
“negative interest rates”
designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions
“negative criticism”
a reply of denial
“he answered in the negative”
a piece of photographic film showing an image with light and shade or colors reversed
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for negative come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.