false negative

noun

plural false negatives

: a person or test result that is incorrectly classified as negative (as for the presence of a health condition) because of imperfect testing methods or procedures

A false negative, in medical lingo, is a screening test that says "no cancer" when all the while a cancer is, in fact, growing undetected.

—Robin Marantz Henig

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

a false-negative rate of 5%

… only 4 of 31 tears found on arthroscopic evaluation were missed prospectively by MRI, and two of these false-negative results were found retrospectively to be due to observer error rather than failure of the MRI system to image the tear.

—Peter D. Franklin et al.

compare false positive

Examples of false negative in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And Negatives: Automated systems may generate false positives or false negatives when identifying misconfigurations. —Ran Nahmias, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2024

But the test could have some limitations—in previous experiments, only some individuals of a species have passed, which could mean the test has a high rate of false negatives, according to the new study. —Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2023

Those are the various false positives and false negatives that would be part of the risk model. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024

False positive results are rare, says Dr. Dweck, but false negative results can definitely occur. —Sarah Bradley, Parents, 2 Feb. 2024

The Simple 2 test may give a false negative test, the FDA said. —Alyssa Hui, Verywell Health, 22 Nov. 2023

Occurrences of false negative test results may have contributed to the skepticism over the efficacy of COVID home test kits. —David Montesino, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Jan. 2024

These testing errors can be simply from not following the instructions precisely and could result in a false negative. —Maggie O'Neill, Health, 13 Oct. 2023

What’s the risk if the model had false positives, or false negatives? —Brittany Trang, STAT, 22 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1916, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

false negative

noun

: a person or test result that is incorrectly classified as negative (as for the presence of a health condition) because of imperfect testing methods or procedures

"The addition of the lateral chest radiograph to the frontal view did not improve the diagnostic accuracy of pediatric emergency physicians," he [Dr. Lynch] concluded, "and it may also increase the percentage of false negatives."

—Terry Murray, Medical Post

Previous studies of sentinel nodes have revealed some false negatives (i.e., women with a normal sentinel node who nonetheless had other axillary node metastases revealed on total dissection).

—Bill Zepf, American Family Physician

… testing for heterophile antibodies was negative, but false negative results are well recognized.

—Lindley A. Barbee et al., The New England Journal of Medicine

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

false-negative results

… any false-negative smears would again underestimate the prevalence of abnormal test results.

—Jeanne Mandelblatt et al., The Journal of the American Medical Association

compare false positive