diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/SOLR_18256_autofix_negative_lucene_clauses.yml b/changelog/unreleased/SOLR_18256_autofix_negative_lucene_clauses.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e63ee6bc5d5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/SOLR_18256_autofix_negative_lucene_clauses.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+type: fixed
+title: Fix pure negative (NOT) sub-expression queries in lucene QParser
+authors:
+  - name: Abhishek Umarjikar
+    nick: abumarjikar
+links:
+  - name: SOLR-18256
+    url: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-18256
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
index f64f8c3bdaa6..35f064e9c7a1 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrQueryParser.java
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
  */
 package org.apache.solr.search;
 
+import java.util.List;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanClause;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.solr.parser.QueryParser;
 
 /** Solr's default query parser, a schema-driven superset of the classic lucene query parser. */
@@ -24,4 +27,9 @@ public class SolrQueryParser extends QueryParser {
   public SolrQueryParser(QParser parser, String defaultField) {
     super(defaultField, parser);
   }
+
+  @Override
+  protected Query getBooleanQuery(List<BooleanClause> clauses) throws SyntaxError {
+    return QueryUtils.makeQueryable(super.getBooleanQuery(clauses));
+  }
 }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/search/TestSolrQueryParser.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/search/TestSolrQueryParser.java
index 6c9cd362e416..af0b15ae9965 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/search/TestSolrQueryParser.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/search/TestSolrQueryParser.java
@@ -1901,4 +1901,32 @@ public void testFieldExistsQueries() throws SyntaxError {
       }
     }
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testNestedPureNegativeQuery() throws Exception {
+    // Standard sample data with completely unique field values to isolate matches
+    assertU(adoc("id", "9414", "v_t", "pureneg foo bar"));
+    assertU(adoc("id", "9415", "v_t", "pureneg foo baz"));
+    assertU(adoc("id", "9416", "v_t", "pureneg baz"));
+    assertU(commit());
+
+    // Top-level negative query must exclude 'bar' but successfully find our other docs
+    // Force sort by ID so the array index expectations always line up perfectly
+    assertJQ(
+        req("q", "v_t:pureneg AND -v_t:bar", "df", "v_t", "sort", "id asc"),
+        "/response/docs/[0]/id=='9415'",
+        "/response/docs/[1]/id=='9416'");
+
+    // Nested pure negative query inside a parenthesized group with AND
+    assertJQ(
+        req("q", "v_t:pureneg AND v_t:foo AND (-v_t:bar)", "df", "v_t"),
+        "/response/numFound==1",
+        "/response/docs/[0]/id=='9415'");
+
+    // Nested pure negative query using explicit NOT syntax
+    assertJQ(
+        req("q", "v_t:pureneg AND v_t:foo AND (NOT v_t:bar)", "df", "v_t"),
+        "/response/numFound==1",
+        "/response/docs/[0]/id=='9415'");
+  }
 }