Sample Sentences for
positive
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

positive as in:  I'm absolutely positive!

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I'm positive I've seen her before.
positive = certain
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    I'm positive our team will win on Friday.
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    "You sure you're not up for the Halloween Parade?" "Positive."  (source)
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    You are positive that he took full advantage of you?  (source)
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    So don't press it unless you're absolutely positive it's the right thing to do, OK?  (source)
    positive = certain
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    Absolutely, positively, I am live on every screen in Panem.  (source)
    positively = with certainty
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    But in spite of Macaulay's brilliancy and his admirable faculty of making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude very unlike the attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the Demosthenes of Great Britain.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    But you have to achieve positivity in order to maintain it.†  (source)
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    When he drank, he was quite positive that he was swallowing them.  (source)
    positive = certain
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    "It is safe, sir," said William positively.  (source)
    positively = with certainty
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    Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.†  (source)
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    Positivity anytime was hard for me to take, but in the morning with a hangover, almost impossible.†  (source)
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    We were positive that Stephano killed him!  (source)
    positive = certain
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    Absolutely, positively, one hundred and ten percent smashed.  (source)
    positively = with certainty
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positive as in:  had a positive effect

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We don't have a solution yet, but our recent experiment was a positive step in the right direction.
positive = good or beneficial
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Wage growth had a positive impact on the stock market.
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    I'm making a list of the positives and negatives of switching jobs
    positives = good things or characteristics
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    Lower interest rates positively affected home sales.
    positively = in a good or beneficial manner
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
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    Curly finally came up with something positive to contribute.  (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
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    But there are also a lot of positives to military service.  (source)
    positives = good things
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    People were scarcely real to them, in the sense of being warmly or positively (or even angrily) felt about… The three men under sentence of death had shallow emotions regarding their own fate and that of their victims.  (source)
    positively = in a good or beneficial manner
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    I also have done many things the right way and have been a positive influence on many people.  (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
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    It's society that implants positives or negatives onto certain ideas.†  (source)
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    When citizens honor a person, he responds positively.  (source)
    positively = in a good or beneficial manner
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    I hadn't been told anything positive for so long that I nearly cried.  (source)
    positive = good
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    And less on the negatives and more on the positives, please?†  (source)
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    He got his hands on a gun for self-defense but was quickly arrested for it and placed in a juvenile camp where supervisors reported that he eagerly participated in and positively responded to the structured environment and guidance of staff members.  (source)
    positively = in a good way
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    "Personally I see nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless's lifestyle or wilderness doctrine," scolded another correspondent.  (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
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positive as in:  positive feedback from my boss

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Responses to my plan were positive.
positive = indicating agreement or approval
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    We're getting a lot of positive feedback about the proposed changes.
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
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    But some of the reaction in Pakistan was not so positive.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval
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    "You liked it?" I said, getting my second taste—and how sweet it was—of a positive review.  (source)
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Show 9 more with 2 word variations
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    The materials we developed were generating positive feedback, and I became hopeful that we might be able to push back against the suppression of this difficult history of racial injustice.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval
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    To ensure that his message got through, he decided to speak positively about his captors.  (source)
    positively = in an approving manner (saying good things)
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    I always tried to be positive with her, although I'd learned that even compliments were a kind of insult to Lou Ann, causing her to wrinkle her face and advise me to make an appointment with an eye doctor.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
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    She must have had some sort of positive emotion about him though.  (source)
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    He had never knowingly given her pain, but he now felt that she required more positive kindness; and with that view endeavoured, in the first place, to lessen her fears of them all, and gave her especially a great deal of good advice as to playing with Maria and Julia, and being as merry as possible.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval
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    Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before, Babi said, always lowering his voice, aware of how intolerant Mammy was of even remotely positive talk of the communists.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
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    But still not everyone in Pakistan was so positive. Though my father had tried to keep it from me, I knew some people were saying he had shot me, or that I wasn't shot at all and we had staged it so we could live overseas.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval
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    It would be a generous one, more generous than his length of service warranted, because, let's be frank, his friends at AnooYoo wanted Jimmy to remember them in a positive manner, in his terrific new position.  (source)
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
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    The media in Swat were under pressure to give positive coverage to the Taliban—some even respectfully called the Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan School Dada, when in reality he was destroying schools.  (source)
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positive as in:  a positive attitude

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With a positive attitude and some effort, I'm sure we can make this work.
positive = optimistic
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    I appreciation your positive attitude.
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
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    That's how Perpich had put it, stay positive and stay on top of things.  (source)
    positive = optimistic
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    I needed to turn this around, make it positive.  (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
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    Think positive.  (source)
    positive = optimistically
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    "We've got to think positive thoughts."  (source)
    positive = optimistic
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    I do my best to sound positive about our future, but people are truly devastated when they learn I've lost the baby.  (source)
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    Occasionally, in spite of the professional and positive attitude of the staff, outbursts do occur.  (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
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    I asked Morrie how he managed to stay positive through that.  (source)
    positive = optimistic
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    I tried to look cheerful. He needs someone upbeat, someone positive.  (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
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    My mom can be quiet and talk at the same time when she's being positive.  (source)
    positive = optimistic
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    I was in no mood to hear one of her lectures about the power of positive thinking.  (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
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    Here he is with no leg and a positive attitude.  (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
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    The paper explained that because he had confessed and had a positive attitude, he was pardoned.  (source)
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positive as in:  The test came back positive.

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The pregnancy test was positive.
positive = it found the condition present
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    The test for bacterial infection came back positive.
    positive = showing it to be present
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    After several days of symptoms, he finally tested positive for strep throat.
    positive = showing it is present
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    We tested for lead in the drinking water. The results came back positive.
    positive = showing it to be present
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    The dog’s bloodwork was positive for heartworm, so treatment had to begin immediately.
    positive = showing it is present
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    "Of course I tested positive," I said to the doctor.  (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
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    They had run toxicity profiles as well, and they had found only one positive match: the blood was mildly reactive to the venom of the Indian king cobra.  (source)
    positive = found a condition or substance to be present
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    I caught it just a few weeks ago, tested positive at the quarantine checkpoint—government's trying their damnedest to keep the sick and the well separate.  (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
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    If the bat tested positive for rabies, then John Luke would have to go through about five rounds of shots.  (source)
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    You're positive for strep and mono.  (source)
    positive = indicating that the results of a test showed that a condition was found
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    One month prior to current visit, patient tested positive for gonorrhea.  (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
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    All four men eventually tested positive for Ebola Reston virus.  (source)
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    I took a pregnancy test today. It was positive.  (source)
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    Out of the eighteen, one was positive for melanoma.  (source)
    positive = indicating that the results of a test showed that a condition was found
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positive as in:  a positive number

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The company has a positive cash flow.
positive = greater than zero (in this case, cash in minus cash out is greater than zero)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    We expect to achieve a positive cash flow next year.
    positive = greater than zero
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    It is a positive number.
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    So I limited the reactor enough that we weren't getting positive heat.  (source)
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    Assuming negative numbers if the guy is more of a Dumpee; positive if the girl is.  (source)
    positive = greater than zero
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    And then, slowly, she watched the second, perpendicular line appear: a plus sign, a positive, a cross to bear.  (source)
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    Absolute value: the distance that a given number is from zero on a number line …. always a positive.  (source)
    positive = expressed a number greater than zero
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    Positive numbers if the boy is more attracted to the girl; negative if vice versa.  (source)
    Positive = greater than zero
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    A negative number if the boy is more of a Dumper; positive number if the girl is.  (source)
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    He sketched: Where x = time, and y = happiness, y = 0 beginning of relationship and breakup, y negative = breakup by m, and y positive = breakup by f: my relationship with K-19.  (source)
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    Which Colin arrived at by calculating the popularity difference between Person A and Person B on a scale of 1 to 1,000 (you can approximate) and then dividing by 75—positive numbers if the girl is more popular; negative if the guy is.  (source)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
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    I flipped through my notebook to the lecture on negative and positive liberty.  (source)
    positive = constructive or enabling
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    Yes, no positive action.  (source)
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    "Positive liberty," another student said, "is freedom from internal constraints."  (source)
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    He said positive liberty is self-mastery—the rule of the self, by the self.  (source)
    positive = constructive or enabling
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    To have positive liberty, he explained, is to take control of one's own mind; to be liberated from irrational fears and beliefs, from addictions, superstitions and all other forms of self-coercion.  (source)
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    I thought of positive liberty, and of what it might mean to self-coerce, until my head thrummed with a dull ache.  (source)
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