positif

/\pɔ.zi.tif\/ adj

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#2,846

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

3

similar word pairs

positif is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui est certain, constant et sûr. Pronounced \pɔ.zi.tif\. It ranks #2,846 in French word frequency. Often confused with position and positive.

Key facts for positif
PropertyValue
Headwordpositif
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\pɔ.zi.tif\
Letters7
Frequency rank#2,846
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of positif in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for positif is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɔ.zi.tif\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,846 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for positif, with forms such as "opsitif", "poistif", and "posiitf". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "position", "positive", "positifs", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is positif, spelled P-O-S-I-T-I-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est certain, constant et sûr.
  2. 2
    Qui facilite les choses. Qui va dans le bon sens.
  3. 3
    Fondé sur une loi écrite et non pas sur l’institution divine (droit religieux), la coutume (droit civil) ou la jurisprudence.
  4. 4
    Qualifie ce qui s’appuie sur les faits, sur l’expérience, sur des notions a posteriori, par opposition à ce qui s’appuie sur des notions a priori.
  5. 5
    Qui affirme ou pose une qualité comme existante et réelle. Affirmatif.
  6. 6
    Se dit aussi par opposition à négatif.
  7. 7
    Plus que zéro, et parfois, zéro ou plus.
  8. 8
    Qui appartient à la partie d’un circuit, d’un conducteur, d’un connecteur caractérisée par un déficit d’électrons. → voir électropositif.
  9. 9
    Pôle positif : Le pôle d’une pile électrique opposé au pôle négatif. Ce pôle positif absorbe les électrons provenant du circuit relié à la pile.
  10. 10
    Tirage ou épreuve, par opposition au négatif.
  11. 11
    Ce qui est au premier degré, où la qualité est simplement affirmée, par opposition à comparatif et à superlatif.
  12. 12
    Qui doit être posé, s'oppose ici à portatif.
  13. 13
    Qui révèle la présence de l'élément qu’on recherche.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: opsitif,poistif,posiitf,positfi,positiff,posittif,possitif,postiif,ppositif,psoitif

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for positif

Misspelling Variants of "positif"

opsitif7poistif7posiitf7positfi7positiff8posittif8possitif8postiif7
Misspelling Variants of "positif"

Frequency rank: #2,846 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "positif"?
"positif" is spelled P-O-S-I-T-I-F. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.zi.tif\.
What does "positif" mean?
As an adj, "positif" means: Qui est certain, constant et sûr.
What words are commonly confused with "positif"?
"positif" is commonly confused with "position", "positive", "positifs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "positif"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "positif" is \pɔ.zi.tif\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "positif" come from?
"positif" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.