An incorrect test result that is positive when it should, in fact, be negative.

A false match incorrectly recognised by a discriminator.

false-positive result is one where the result is thought to be positive, but this turns out to be untrue. A child who has a false-positive result for CHT is a child who has been told they have the condition and then it turns out that this is not the case. For parents, receiving a false-positive result can mean that they think that their child is ill when actually they are healthy.

a legitimate e-mail that has been identified as spam because it passed the keyword threshold

a legitimate message that was identified as spam

a very bad thing-- it is when the spam filter blocks a legitimate message because it thinks it is spam