false positive

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English

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Noun

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false positive (plural false positives)

  1. A result of a test that shows as present something that is absent.
    A false positive from a cancer screening test will unnecessarily frighten a healthy person; a false negative will deprive them of timely treatment.
    A false positive can be returned on a password checking algorithm when the password is tested against a dictionary but the password does not contain a dictionary word.
  2. (statistics) A type I error.

Synonyms

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  • FP (abbreviation)
  • (result of a test that shows as present something that is absent): false alarm

Antonyms

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Translations

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