Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Affirmative |
AffirmativeAdjective1. Affirming or giving assent; "an affirmative decision"; "affirmative votes"; "an affirmative nod"; "an affirmatory gesture". 2. Expecting the best; "an affirmative outlook". 3. Supporting a policy or attitude etc; "an affirmative argument". Noun1. A reply of affirmation; "he answered in the affirmative". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "affirmative" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonyms: AffirmativeSynonyms: affirmatory (adj), favoring (adj), optimistic (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: negative (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Affirmation | Pronunciative, affirmative, soi-disant; positive; certain; express, explicit; (patent); absolute, emphatic, flat, broad, round, pointed, marked, distinct, decided, confident, trenchant, dogmatic, definitive, formal, solemn, categorical, peremptory; unretracted; predicable. |
Adverb: affirmatively; Adjective: in the affirmative. | |
Assent | Affirmatively, in the affirmative. |
Affirmative. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Affirmative |
| English words defined with "affirmative": accept, Affirmatively, affirmatory, answer, Ay, Aye ♦ Bakke decision, Baroko, Bocardo ♦ consent, controversial ♦ double negative ♦ favoring ♦ go for ♦ -ive ♦ litotes ♦ meiosis ♦ Nor ♦ optimistic ♦ Positive quantity, Predicatory, pro, Pro and con ♦ Subcontrary ♦ To renounce probate ♦ yea, yes. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "affirmative": AAP ♦ claim of ownership ♦ Do Pass ♦ EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFICER ♦ Had ought to, HALF ♦ petitory action ♦ supervisory agreement. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Affirmative" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. French (affirmative). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Tight little package affirmative. (There's Something About Mary; writing credit: Ed Decter; John J. Strauss) That's affirmative, Captain (The Rock; writing credit: David Weisberg; Douglas Cook) Consider this affirmative action for my feminine principles (The Incredible Hulk; writing credit: Jack Kirby; Stan Lee) I'm Apache, and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee (The 45th Annual Academy Awards; writing credit: Seok-hun Yun) Affirmative, Dave, I read you. (2001: A Space Odyssey; writing credit: Stanley Kubrick; Arthur C. Clarke) | |
Clever | Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is affirmative or negative. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Marbury v. Madison | 1803 | Affirmative words are often, in their operation, negative of other objects than those affirmed; and in this case, a negative or exclusive sense must be given to them or they have no operation at all. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | The woman gave an affirmative nod of the head |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Due to the affirmative action policies and the so-called “brain-drain”, where large numbers of skilled, mainly white, graduates are leaving the country in search of better career prospects abroad, there is an acute shortage of skills found in the historically disadvantaged part of the population. (references) | |
Children | South Africa | The law requires employers with more than 50 workers to create an affirmative action plan with provisions for achieving employment equity for persons with disabilities. (references) |
Kuwait | Legislation passed by the National Assembly in 1996 mandated accessibility for persons with disabilities to all public facilities, and provides an affirmative action employment program for persons with disabilities. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Pakistan | Government officials claimed that this is an affirmative measure designed to guarantee minority representation. (references) |
Discrimination | Fiji | It also provides for specific affirmative action provisions for those disadvantaged as a result of such discrimination. (references) |
Singapore | Mindful of the country's history of intercommunal tension, the Government takes affirmative measures to ensure racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural nondiscrimination. (references) | |
Fiji | A compact included in the Constitution specifically provides for affirmative action and "social justice" programs to secure effective equality of access to opportunities, amenities, and services for ethnic Fijians and Rotumans and for all disadvantaged citizens and groups. (references) | |
Human Rights | South Africa | Resignations and retirements of senior police officials have permitted the infusion of new personnel at senior levels from both inside and outside the SAPS; these appointments also have promoted affirmative action within the SAPS. (references) |
Minorities | India | Low caste Hindus who convert to Christianity lose their eligibility for affirmative action programs. (references) |
Israel and the occupied territories | In 1994 a civil service commission began a 3-year affirmative action program to expand that number, but it has achieved only modest results. (references) | |
Political Economy | Fiji | One of the primary goals of the newly elected government is an affirmative action program, or "Blueprint," designed to aid indigenous Fijians in education and business. (references) |
Political Rights | Nigeria | Women's rights groups lobbied local and state governments, as well as the Federal Government, to adopt a 30 percent affirmative action program; however, these efforts were unsuccessful. (references) |
Trade | Philippines | Special bank examinations require the affirmative vote of at least five of the seven members of the Philippine Monetary Board (the Bangko Sentral's highest policymaking body). (references) |
Women | Netherlands | In 1988 the Government started affirmative action programs for women. (references) |
South Africa | Discrimination against women in the workplace is prohibited under the law, which includes both anti-discrimination and affirmative action provisions. (references) | |
India | On February 1, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) continued to recommend an extensive range of legal reform, additional resources, and affirmative government action to eliminate gender inequality. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Swaziland | These demands address a wide range of issues, including recognition of affirmative action, a national uniform minimum wage, an end to discrimination against women, the provision of better housing for workers, inclusion of worker representatives in constitutional discussions, and the lifting of the 1973 Decree that suspended the Constitution and outlawed political parties. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | HALF, n. One of two equal parts into which a thing may be divided, or considered as divided. In the fourteenth century a heated discussion arose among theologists and philosophers as to whether Omniscience could part an object into three halves; and the pious Father Aldrovinus publicly prayed in the cathedral at Rouen that God would demonstrate the affirmative of the proposition in some signal and unmistakable way, and particularly (if it should please Him) upon the body of that hardy blasphemer, Manutius Procinus, who maintained the negative. Procinus, however, was spared to die of the bite of a viper. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | Richard Nixon, it could be said, was the author of affirmative action. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
James Madison | 1809-1817 | This question being, after due deliberation, determined in the affirmative, a proclamation to that effect was issued. |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | I will continue to work with all my strength for equal opportunity for all Americans--and for affirmative action for those who carry the extra burden of past denial of equal opportunity. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Affirmative" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 73.47% of the time. "Affirmative" is used about 147 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 73.47% | 108 | 31,306 |
| Noun (singular) | 26.53% | 39 | 55,036 |
| Total | 100.00% | 147 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "affirmative": a decided affirmative ♦ affirmative action ♦ affirmative answer ♦ affirmative case ♦ affirmative pleading ♦ an answer in the affirmative ♦ answer in the affirmative ♦ answer the affirmative ♦ in the affirmative ♦ vote in the affirmative. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "affirmative": affirmative-to-the-max. | |
Ending with "affirmative": creative-affirmative. | |
Containing "affirmative": anti-affirmative-action. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "affirmative"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pohues (positive, predicative, sustaining). (various references) | |
Arabic | غير سلبي, الجهة المؤيدة, إيجابي (favorable, favourable, plus, positive), إيجاب. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | утвърдителен, потвърдителен (confirmative, confirmatory), положителна страна при дебати, положителен отговор (yea), положителен (absolute, indisputable, peremptory, positive). (various references) | |
Chinese | 肯定 (Affirm, Affirmation, Affirmed, Affirming, Predicative, sure, surely). (various references) | |
Czech | kladný (plus, positive). (various references) | |
Danish | positive foranstaltninger (affirmative action, assertive action, positive action), positiv særbehandling (affirmative action, assertive action, positive action). (various references) | |
Dutch | toestemmend, bevestigend. (various references) | |
Finnish | myönteinen. (various references) | |
French | affirmatif. (various references) | |
German | positiv (affirmatory, favorable, favorably, favourable, favourably, positive, positively), bejahend (affirmatively), zustimmend (acquiescent, approving, approvingly, assenting, concerned, consentient, consenting, jibing). (various references) | |
Greek | καταφατικόσ, καταφατικός. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מחיב (convicting, mandatory, obliging, positive), חיובי (compulsory, favourable, positive). (various references) | |
Hungarian | állító (assertive, assurer, positive, predicative). (various references) | |
Italian | affermativo (affirmatory), affermativa. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 肯定的 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | "うていてき. (various references) | |
Korean | 찬성 (Approving). (various references) | |
Manx | shickyragh, jarrooagh (categorical, confirmative, definitive, positive, predicative). (various references) | |
Papiamen | afirmativo. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | affirmativeay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | afirmativo (assertive, assertory, predicative), positivo (factual, literal, plump, plus, positive). (various references) | |
Romanian | afirmativ (affirmatively, assertive, in the affirmative, positive). (various references) | |
Russian | утвердительный (affirmable, assertive). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | potvrdan (confirmative, positive), odgovoriti potvrdno. (various references) | |
Spanish | afirmativo (assertive, positive). (various references) | |
Swedish | jakande (positive). (various references) | |
Turkish | olumlu cevap (positive answer, yea, yes), olumlu (assertive, content, favorable, favourable, peremptory), doğrulayan, doğrulayıcı (confirmative, confirmatory, corroborative, corroboratory, predicative). (various references) | |
Turkmen | polaЈhitel (r). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ствердний (affirmant), стверджувальний (affirmant, assertive), твердження (affirmation, assertion, averment, claim, contention, predicate, predication, proposition, representation), позитивний (assertive, plus, positive, staid). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lời nói "ừ", lời nói "được", lời khẳng định, khẳng định; quả quyết. (various references) | |
Welsh | cadarnhaol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "affirmative": affirmatively, affirmatives. (additional references) | |
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"Affirmative" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: affermative, affimative, affirative, affirmitive, affirnative, affrimative. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "affirmative" (pronounced ufer"mutiv) |
| 5 | -m u t i v | formative, informative, normative, primitive, uninformative. |
| 4 | -u t i v | accusative, acquisitive, additive, alliterative, alternative, anticompetitive, argumentative, causative, cognitive, commemorative, communicative, comparative, competitive, consecutive, conservative, consultative, contemplative, cumulative, curative, decorative, definitive, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, duplicative, evocative, executive, expletive, exploitative, Federative, figurative, fixative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imperative, indicative, infinitive, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncompetitive, noncumulative, nonexecutive, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, preventative, prohibitive, provocative, punitive, putative, recuperative, relative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, speculative, superlative, talkative, tentative, ultraconservative, uncompetitive, uncooperative, unimaginative, unrepresentative, vituperative. |
| 3 | -t i v | accommodative, abortive, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-f-f-i-i-m-r-t-v" | |
-4 letters: affaire, airtime, amative, amirate, fermata, miffier, variate, viremia, vitamer. | |
-5 letters: affair, affirm, amrita, aviate, iffier, imaret, maffia, maftir, mitier, raffia, ramate, taffia, tamari, tariff, trivia. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-e-f-f-i-i-m-r-t-v" | |
+1 letter: affirmatives. | |
+2 letters: affirmatively. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Historic 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
