| English Dictionary |
AFFIRMATIVE
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does affirmative mean?
• AFFIRMATIVE (noun)
The noun AFFIRMATIVE has 1 sense:
1. a reply of affirmation
Familiarity information: AFFIRMATIVE used as a noun is very rare.
• AFFIRMATIVE (adjective)
The adjective AFFIRMATIVE has 3 senses:
1. affirming or giving assent
2. expecting the best
3. expressing or manifesting praise or approval
Familiarity information: AFFIRMATIVE used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A reply of affirmation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Context example:
he answered in the affirmative
Hypernyms ("affirmative" is a kind of...):
affirmation; avouchment; avowal (a statement asserting the existence or the truth of something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affirmative"):
double negative (an affirmative constructed from two negatives)
Antonym:
negative (a reply of denial)
Derivation:
affirmative (affirming or giving assent)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Affirming or giving assent
Synonyms:
affirmative; affirmatory
Context example:
affirmative votes
Similar:
assentient (expressing agreement or consent)
Also:
favorable; favourable (encouraging or approving or pleasing)
positive (characterized by or displaying affirmation or acceptance or certainty etc.)
Antonym:
negative (expressing or consisting of a negation or refusal or denial)
Derivation:
affirm (say yes to)
affirmative (a reply of affirmation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Expecting the best
Synonyms:
affirmative; optimistic
Context example:
an affirmative outlook
Similar:
positive (characterized by or displaying affirmation or acceptance or certainty etc.)
Derivation:
affirmativeness (the agreeable quality of one who assents)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Expressing or manifesting praise or approval
Synonyms:
affirmative; approbative; approbatory; approving; plausive
Context example:
an affirmative nod
Similar:
favorable; favourable (encouraging or approving or pleasing)
Context examples
“Twist it, an’ you’ll choke ’m plentee,” said Manuel, and the stranger grunted a ready affirmative.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Mr. Dick—with rather a scared look, as if he had forgotten it—returned a hasty answer in the affirmative.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The non-affirmative response to a question.
(No, NCI Thesaurus)
Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative!
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
“Did you ever remark that door?” he asked; and when his companion had replied in the affirmative, “It is connected in my mind,” added he, “with a very odd story.”
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
She answered in the affirmative, and, unable to resist the temptation, added, “When you met us there the other day, we had just been forming a new acquaintance.”
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Impossible to reply to this in the affirmative: my little world held a contrary opinion: I was silent.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
In a hurried manner, he replied in the affirmative.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Emma was almost too much astonished to answer; but Mrs. Elton hardly waited for the affirmative before she went on.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The prizefighter smiled an affirmative.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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