# Negative prompt

**Source:** https://promtable.com/glossary/negative-prompt

> A negative prompt is text that tells an image, video, or audio generator what to avoid producing — the opposite of the main prompt.

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A negative prompt is text that tells an image, video, or audio generator what to avoid producing — the opposite of the main prompt.

Used heavily in Stable Diffusion, Flux, Midjourney (via --no), Sora, and Kling, the negative prompt is a separate input that pushes the diffusion model's sampling away from certain features. Typical entries: "blurry, low quality, extra fingers, text, watermark, deformed hands". Negative prompting is most effective on open-weight diffusion models where the user controls sampling; closed APIs (Sora, Veo) often expose a constrained version. Good negative prompts are short and concrete — long lists of negatives cancel each other out and can degrade quality.

## When to use

- Removing common diffusion artifacts (extra limbs, garbled text, watermarks).
- Steering away from a style you don't want (e.g. "--no anime" on Midjourney).

## Common mistakes

- Stacking 30 negatives — they fight each other and quality drops.
- Using negatives as a substitute for a precise positive prompt.

## Related terms

- [prompt-engineering](https://promtable.com/glossary/prompt-engineering)
- [diffusion-model](https://promtable.com/glossary/diffusion-model)
- [midjourney-parameters](https://promtable.com/glossary/midjourney-parameters)

*Last updated: 2026-06-01*
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Original page: https://promtable.com/glossary/negative-prompt
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