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Glite Dictionary
🩸 No antibodies 🧑‍⚕️ Person without antibodies
seronegative

seronegative

8.1
A person with no antibodies in the blood for a specific infection
  • noun
  • /ˌsɪəroʊˈnɛɡətɪv/
  • Specialized
: seronegativo
  • The doctor informed her that she is seronegative, meaning her blood does not show any antibodies for the infection.

Examples

  • After testing multiple samples, they confirmed that this patient is seronegative for HIV.

  • Researchers are particularly interested in studying seronegative individuals to understand their resistance to certain infections.

  • The impact on the detection and cure rates for HIV-seronegative, smear-positive patients could be substantial.

    Academic text (1992)

  • It is also too early to know whether women who were tested and found seronegative were so due to the lengthy incubation period of the virus.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Quantitatively, these findings suggest a severe deficiency of nasal mucosal CD4-positive cells in these two patients, compared to HIV-seronegative controls.

    Academic text (1998)

Antonyms

seropositive
  • Specialized
1 7.9

A person whose blood has antibodies that show past infection or exposure

Surface Forms

seronegative singular
seronegatives plural

Morphology

seronegative = negative (opaque) = sero + negative

The word uses the medical combining form sero- plus negative, but the meaning depends on technical knowledge of serum antibodies and is not straightforward for an average learner.

Etymology

Seronegative comes from serum ('the clear part of blood') and negative ('no' or 'not'), so a seronegative person is someone whose blood shows 'no' detectable antibodies for that infection.