How to spell positive

hear itpos·i·tive/'pɑzɪtɪv/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Hopeful, cheerful, or confident.

In a sentence: She had a positive attitude even on rainy days.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as posative or positve.

Same family: posit, position, positiveity, positively, positivity. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Positive” comes from Latin *positivus*, meaning “settled by agreement” or “formally laid down,” from *ponere* “to place, put.” Over time, the sense shifted from something firmly stated to the modern idea of something good, sure, or beneficial.

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

won't · culture · sign · account · credit · report · visit · object

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.