true positive
Accurate positive result
A true positive is a test result that correctly identifies what it's looking for—a cancer screening that detects actual cancer, a spam filter that catches genuine spam.
The term comes from statistics and machine learning, where it contrasts with false positive (detecting something that isn't there), false negative (missing something that is), and true negative (correctly finding nothing).
The antibody test had a high rate of true positives.
- hitSuccessful contact or strike
- correctFree from error
- detectionAct of finding something
- accurateConforming to fact
- real dealTruly authentic person/thing
got it right · diagnosis · match · confirmed · gold standard · valid · signal · sensitivity · test · success · bullseye · spot-on · identified · caught · flagged · verified · precision · recall
true positivefalse negative
Incorrectly absent finding
miss · type II error · false positive · false alarm · type I error
true, positive, truly, truth, truthful, truthfully, untruthful, truism, truer