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 nounRobin Marantz Heniga 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
Peter D. Franklin et al.Examples of false negative in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Similar to some medical tests, biometric authentication can have false negatives, leading to angry consumers who cannot access their accounts or make a payment.
—Atal Bansal, Forbes, 13 Sep. 2024
Imaging tests do not always pick up small tumors, so a second imaging test is done to prevent false negatives or positives.
—Susan Russell, Health, 12 Sep. 2024
The study found that about 83% of participants who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer via colonoscopy tested positive for the disease on the Shield test, compared with about 17% who had a false negative.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 29 July 2024
The same cannot be said for biomedical research, where the risk tends toward false negatives, with researchers reporting no statistical significance when effects exist.
—Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2019
See all Example Sentences for false negative 
Atal Bansal, Forbes, 13 Sep. 2024
Imaging tests do not always pick up small tumors, so a second imaging test is done to prevent false negatives or positives.
—Susan Russell, Health, 12 Sep. 2024
The study found that about 83% of participants who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer via colonoscopy tested positive for the disease on the Shield test, compared with about 17% who had a false negative.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 29 July 2024
The same cannot be said for biomedical research, where the risk tends toward false negatives, with researchers reporting no statistical significance when effects exist.
—Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2019
See all Example Sentences for false negative
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Cite this Entry
“False negative.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/false%20negative. Accessed 17 Sep. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical 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
Terry Murray, Medical PostPrevious 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
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 nounLindley A. Barbee et al., The New England Journal of Medicinefalse-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
Jeanne Mandelblatt et al., The Journal of the American Medical AssociationLove words? Need even more definitions?
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