FALSE POSITIVE

Domain	Definition
Medicine	Area that the program rates as suspicious but that the radiologist ultimately decides does not represent a possible malignancy. Source: European Union. (references)
Statistics	Occurs in a test when the test declares the condition of interest present when in fact it is absent. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: False positive

A false positive is when a test incorrectly reports that it has found what it is looking for. Detection algorithms of all kinds have the tendency to create such false alarms.

For example, optical character recognition (OCR) may detect an 'a' where there are only some dots that look like an a to the algorithm being used.

This is problematic when it happens in biometric scans, such as retina scans or facial recognition, when the scanner incorrectly identifies someone as matching a known person, either a person who is entitled to enter the system, or a suspected criminal.

When developing such software or hardware there is always a tradeoff between false positives and false negatives (in which an actual match is not detected).

Usually there is some trigger value of how close a match to a given sample must be achieved before the algorithm reports a match. The higher this trigger value is, the more similar an object has to be to be detected and the fewer false positives will be created.

False positives are also a significant issue in medical testing. In some cases, there are two or more tests that can be used, one of which is simpler and less expensive, but less accurate, than the other. For example, the simplest tests for HIV and hepatitis in blood have a significant rate of false positives. These tests are used to screen out possible blood donors, but more expensive and more precise tests are used in medical practice, to determine whether a person is actually infected with these viruses.

False positives can produce serious and counterintuitive problems when the condition being searched for is rare. If a test has a false positive rate of one in ten thousand, but only one in a million samples (or people) is a true positive, most of the "positives" detected by the test will be false.

See also: Receiver-operator characteristic, Type I error

Photo Album: FALSE POSITIVE

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	False positive tests results using the ELISA tests will require secondary testing using this Western blot, immunoblotting procedure. The bound antigens are detected when tagged with antibodies during analysis of the nitrocellulose sheet. Credit: CDC.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: FALSE POSITIVE

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		The false positive rate is about 5 to 10 percent. (references)
		However, it has a high false positive rate, which results in the deferral of many acceptable donors. (references)
		Both of these nonspecific tests have a low positive predictive value with frequent false positive results. (references)
Political Economy	GREECE	Agricultural Products: Greek testing methods for Karnal bunt disease in U.S. wheat have served as a de facto ban on imports and transshipment of wheat for the last three years due to a high incidence of false positive results. (references)
Trade	Greece	Greek testing methods for karnal bunt disease in U.S. wheat have served as a de facto ban on imports and transshipment of wheat for the last three years due to a high incidence of false positive results. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression: FALSE POSITIVE

Frequency of Internet Keywords: FALSE POSITIVE

Modern Translation: FALSE POSITIVE

Language		Translations for "FALSE POSITIVE"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Dutch		fout positief. (various references)

French		faux positif. (various references)

German		falsch positiv. (various references)

Greek		ψευδώς θετικό. (various references)

Italian		falso positivo. (various references)

Pig Latin		alsefay ositivepay

Portuguese		falso positivo. (various references)

Russian		ошибочный результат научного исследования. (various references)

Spanish		falso positivo. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Anagrams: FALSE POSITIVE

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-e-f-i-i-l-o-p-s-s-t-v"
	-3 letters: sepiolites.
	-4 letters: falsities, festivals, loveseats, ovalities, pisolites, politesse, positives, sepiolite, spoliates, vitalises.
	-5 letters: apostils, apostles, elatives, epistles, epitases, epitasis, fealties, felsites, festival, fetiales, fetialis, filiates, fleapits, foliates, isolates, leafiest, leaviest, levities, loveseat, pelvises, petioles, pisolite, pistoles, pitiless, plosives, poetises, poetless, polities, positive, safeties, salifies, soapiest, solvates, spoliate, tapeless, topsails, vealiest, violates, violists, vitalise.
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.

Alternative Orthography: FALSE POSITIVE

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

46 41 4C 53 45 50 4F 53 49 54 49 56 45

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000110 01000001 01001100 01010011 01000101 00100000 01010000 01001111 01010011 01001001 01010100 01001001 01010110 01000101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#70 &#65 &#76 &#83 &#69 &#32 &#80 &#79 &#83 &#73 &#84 &#73 &#86 &#69

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0046 0041 004C 0053 0045 0050 004F 0053 0049 0054 0049 0056 0045

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
false positive pregnancy test	78	false positive psa	4
false positive drug test	63	can cause drug false positive substance test that	4
false positive rate	49	false positive pregnancy result	3
false positive	40	false positive tuberculosis	3
false positive drug testing	24	afp false positive	3
home pregnancy test and false positive	13	amphetamine false positive	3
hiv false positive	12	afp false positive test	3
false positive pregnancy	10	false positive result	3
false positive ppd	9	drug false positive screen urine	2
false positive drug screen	8	drug false positive test urine	2
cause false positive pregnancy test	7	ana false positive	2
false positive test urine	5	false positive tb test	2
false positive urinalysis	5	drug false positive screening	2
false positive syphilis	5	false positive pregnancy result test	2
thc false positive	4	false positive rpr	2
cause drug false positive test	4	eia false positive test	2
drug false positive result test	4	false positive syphilis test	2
drug false positive	4
		false positive syphilis test	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression using "FALSE POSITIVE": False Positive Reactions. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

FALSE POSITIVE

Specialty Definition: FALSE POSITIVE

Specialty Definition: False positive

Photo Album: FALSE POSITIVE

Non-Fiction Usage: FALSE POSITIVE

Expression: FALSE POSITIVE

Frequency of Internet Keywords: FALSE POSITIVE

Modern Translation: FALSE POSITIVE

Dutch

French

German

Greek

Italian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Anagrams: FALSE POSITIVE

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Alternative Orthography: FALSE POSITIVE

46 41 4C 53 45 50 4F 53 49 54 49 56 45

01000110 01000001 01001100 01010011 01000101 00100000 01010000 01001111 01010011 01001001 01010100 01001001 01010110 01000101

&#70 &#65 &#76 &#83 &#69 &#32 &#80 &#79 &#83 &#73 &#84 &#73 &#86 &#69

0046 0041 004C 0053 0045 0050 004F 0053 0049 0054 0049 0056 0045

403546533925049534354435639

INDEX