A reaction rate can have a negative partial order with respect to a substance. For example, the conversion of ozone (O) to oxygen follows the rate equation  in an excess of oxygen. This corresponds to second order in ozone and order (−1) with respect to oxygen.
When a partial order is negative, the overall order is usually considered as undefined. In the above example, for instance, the reaction is not described as first order even though the sum of the partial orders is , because the rate equation is more complex than that of a simple first-order reaction.