阴性

• Pinyin: yīn xìng
• Hanzi breakdown: 阴 = 阜 + 侌 (mound + obscured sun — the Yin side, negative); 性 = 忄+ 生 (heart + birth — inherent nature, quality)

Meaning

Negative (in a medical or scientific test); Yin polarity (in traditional Chinese medicine or physics). The opposite of 阳性 (positive/Yang).

In modern medical usage, 阴性 almost always means a negative test result (检测阴性 — test negative). In traditional Chinese medicine, it refers to the Yin quality: cold, dark, passive, receptive. In linguistics (gender systems), it means feminine gender. Context determines which sense is meant. The medical sense is by far the most common in everyday advanced Chinese.

Examples

1. 经过连续三次核酸检测，该病区所有患者均已转为阴性，院方决定于本周末正式解除隔离措施并恢复常规诊疗秩序。 After three consecutive nucleic acid tests, all patients in the ward tested negative, and the hospital decided to officially lift isolation measures this weekend and resume normal medical services.
2. 实验室报告显示，这批食品样本的沙门氏菌检测结果全部为阴性，符合国家食品安全标准，可以正式进入流通环节。 The lab report showed that all the food samples tested negative for Salmonella, meeting national food-safety standards and allowing them to enter distribution.
3. 中医理论认为，人体健康的维持有赖于阴性与阳性能量的动态平衡，任何一方的持续偏盛都可能导致相应的脏腑功能失调。 Traditional Chinese medicine holds that maintaining health depends on a dynamic balance between yin and yang energies; a sustained excess of either can lead to dysfunction in the corresponding organs.

Usage Guide

Context: medicine, public health, traditional Chinese medicine, science

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 最新筛查显示，社区93名受检居民中91名为阴性，2名阳性者已转入定点医院隔离治疗。(Latest screening showed that 91 of the 93 tested residents in the community were negative, and the 2 positive cases have been transferred to designated hospitals for isolation treatment.)
• 二期试验中，有效剂量组十二周后肿瘤标志物多呈阴性，说明药物抑制靶向通路的效果达标。(In the phase two trial, tumor markers in the effective-dose group were mostly negative after twelve weeks, showing the drug's inhibition of the target pathway met expectations.)

Don't Say

• 他的态度是阴性的 — 阴性 is a technical/medical/TCM term; for describing a person's negative or dark attitude say 他的态度很消极 or 他性格阴沉; 阴性 applied to personality sounds like a misuse of medical terminology

Origin & History

阴 (Yin/negative — the shaded side; darkness, cold, passive force) + 性 (nature/character — 忄heart + 生 birth; the inherent nature one is born with)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal