Title: false positive
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - false positive
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11445
Status: current

Definition
A model prediction of a positive result, such as biological activity, when the true result is negative, i.e. inactivity.

Related Term
- confusion matrix: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11428

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 239. 'Glossary of terms used in computational drug design, part II (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 246 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2012-1204)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11445/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11445/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11445/xml

Citation: Citation: 'false positive' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11445
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-15T04:37:13+00:00