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Positive vs Submissive - What's the difference?

positive | submissive |

As nouns the difference between positive and submissive

is that positive is while submissive is one who submits.

As an adjective submissive is

meekly obedient or passive.

positive

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (legal) Formally laid down.
  • * Hooker
    • In laws, that which is natural bindeth universally; that which is positive , not so.
  • Stated definitively and without qualification.
  • * :
    • Positive words, that he would not bear arms against King Edward’s son.
  • Fully assured in opinion.
    • I’m absolutely positive you've spelt that wrong.
  • (mathematics) Of number, greater than zero.
  • Characterized by constructiveness or influence for the better.
  • * :
    • a positive voice in legislation.
  • Overconfident, dogmatic.
  • * :
    • Some positive , persisting fops we know, That, if once wrong, will needs be always so.
  • (chiefly, philosophy) Actual, real, concrete, not theoretical or speculative.
  • * :
    • Positive good.
  • (physics) Having more protons than electrons.
    • A cation is a positive ion as it has more protons than electrons.
  • (grammar) Describing the primary sense of an adjective, adverb or noun; not comparative, superlative, augmentative nor diminutive.
    • ‘Better’ is an irregular comparative of the positive form ‘good’.
  • Derived from an object by itself; not dependent on changing circumstances or relations; absolute.
    • The idea of beauty is not positive , but depends on the different tastes of individuals.
  • Characterized by the existence or presence of distinguishing qualities or features, rather than by their absence.
    • The box was not empty – I felt some positive substance within it.
  • Characterized by the presence of features which support a hypothesis.
    • The results of our experiment are positive .
  • (photography) Of a visual image, true to the original in light, shade and colour values.
    • A positive photograph can be developed from a photographic negative.
  • Favorable, desirable by those interested or invested in that which is being judged.
    • The first-night reviews were largely positive .
  • Wholly what is expressed; colloquially downright, entire, outright.
    • Good lord, you've built up a positive arsenal of weaponry here.
  • Optimistic.
    • He has a positive outlook on life.
  • (chemistry) electropositive
  • (chemistry) basic; metallic; not acid; opposed to negative, and said of metals, bases, and basic radicals.
  • (slang) HIV positive.
  • (New Age jargon) Good, desirable, healthful, pleasant, enjoyable; (often precedes 'energy', 'thought', 'feeling' or 'emotion').
    • 2009 , Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner , John Wiley & Sons, p. 15
    Negative feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive' energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (negative energy). Being open systems, people can exchange this energy with the environment and create ' positive energy for taking action...

    Synonyms

    * (sense, steadfast in one's knowledge or belief) certain, sure, wis

    Antonyms

    * (physics) negative * (mathematics) nonpositive * (doubtful) uncertain, unsure * (spiritual quality) bad, evil, nongood

    Derived terms

    * positivism * dipositive * positive crystal * positive degree * positive electricity * positive eyepiece * positive law * positively * positive motion * positive philosophy * positive pole * positive quantity * positive rotation * positive sign * positive contribution * tripositive * unipositive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thing capable of being affirmed; something real or actual.
    • (South)
  • A favourable point or characteristic.
  • Something having a positive value in physics, such as an electric charge.
  • (grammar) An adjective or adverb in the positive degree.
  • (photography) A positive image; one that displays true colors and shades, as opposed to a negative.
  • The positive plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

    • submissive

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • one who submits

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Meekly obedient or passive.
  • * 1756 , Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke , G. Bell & sons, page 314:
    • The powerful managers for government were not sufficiently submissive to the pleasure of the possessors of immediate and personal favour, sometimes from a confidence in their own strength natural and acquired; sometimes from a fear of offending their friends, and weakening that lead in the country, which gave them a consideration independent of the court.
  • * 1913 , Edward Lee Thorndike, Educational Psychology , Teachers college, Columbia university, page 92:
    • If the human being who answers these tendencies assumes a submissive behavior, in essence a lowering of head and shoulders, wavering glance, absence of all preparations for attack, general weakening of muscle tonus, and hesitancy in movement, the movements of attempt at mastery become modified into attempts at the more obvious swagger, strut and glare of triumph.
  • * 2007 , Brian Watermeyer, Disability and Social Change: A South African Agenda , HSRC Press, page 269:
    • Once oppression has been internalised, little force is needed to keep us submissive .

    Derived terms

    * submissively (adverb) * submissiveness (noun)

    Synonyms

    * docile * meek * slavish * timid * obedient

    Antonyms

    * dominant, domineering (ruling ) * defiant, rebellious (ignoring )