List of Descriptive Adjectives

Adjectives are used in a language to describe something or someone. Descriptive

adjectives are the prominent type of adjectives. In this article, we will see more
about adjectives, its types and a list of descriptive adjectives.

The English language is one of the most popular and widely spoken languages in
the world. Once you master the rules of English grammar, understanding and
learning the language is a lot easier. There are large number of words in the
English language, and all these words can be classified into the eight parts of
speech. These parts of speech, viz. Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun,
Conjunction, Preposition and Interjection, form the backbone of English grammar
and composition. Here we will know more about adjectives.

Adjectives

Adjectives are required extensively in regular conversation and writing, specifically

when we are describing something. Adjectives are one of the eight parts of speech
that express an attribute of a place, thing, an event or a person. In simpler words,
adjectives describe, qualify or modify nouns. Adjectives precede the noun in a
sentence. There can also be more than two adjectives qualifying a single noun. The
list of adjectives in English are categorized into two types; limiting adjectives and
descriptive adjectives.

Limiting Adjectives

Limiting adjectives are used to specify only certain or specific nouns. They are
limited to the noun that they describe and hence, are known as limiting adjectives.
The types of limiting adjectives are possessive adjectives, demonstrative
adjectives, numerical adjectives, interrogative adjectives, and proper adjectives.
e.g. His book (possessive adjective)
Shakespearean drama (proper adjective)

Descriptive Adjectives

The groups of descriptive adjective is the largest among all the types of adjectives.
They describe the noun in detail by assigning an attribute of that noun. The list of
descriptive adjectives is considered nearly unending, as there are adjectives to
describe all nouns. They are primarily differentiated into simple adjectives and
compound adjectives.
(1) Simple Adjectives
Simple adjectives are single words that are commonly used to describe a noun.
These are commonly used in verbal communication when describing a thing or a
person.
e.g. good, happy, bad, thin, lovely, picturesque

(2) Compound Adjectives

Two or more adjectives, used consecutively to describe the same noun, are known
as compound adjectives. They are hyphenated in order to avoid confusion between
the two adjectives. The most common compound adjectives are the ones formed
when adjectives precede nouns like 'blue-sky', or when adjectives are preceded by
verbs as in 'feel-good'. When two or more colors are used as adjectives, there is
always a hyphen between them.
e.g. middle-aged, short-sighted, bluish-green

If there is no hyphen between two adjectives, there can be an ambiguity in the

meaning of the sentence. The following example will be beneficial to illustrate this.
e.g. A man-eating tiger.
As the adjectives are hyphenated, it is clear that they describe the noun, 'tiger'.
Now, consider the following example,
e.g. A man eating tiger.
Here, as there is no hyphen between the two words, it is difficult to interpret the
two words, 'man and eating', as a compound adjective (man-eating). The sentence
clearly means that a man is eating a tiger.

The following are lists of adjectives that are categorized according to ones that
describe qualities, personality traits, colors, sizes, shapes, sounds and feelings.
These can also be used to describe quality of something or even to describe a
person's character.

Descriptive Adjectives List

List of Adjectives Describing List of Adjectives Describing List of Adjectives

Appearance Personality Describing Feelings
Adorable Aggressive Afraid
Attractive Ambitious Angry
Alluring Amused Anxious
Beautiful Brave Bad
Bewildered Bright Bored
Boorish Barbarous Berserk
Confident Cruel Calm
Cheerful Combative Confused
Cultured Co-operative Comfortable
Clumsy Cowardly Creepy
Drab Dangerous Depressed
Dull Diligent Disturbed
Dynamic Determined Dominating
Disillusioned Disagreeable Deceitful
Elegant Evil Envious
Energetic Erratic Elated
Fair Frank Faithful
Filthy Fearless Fine
Gentle Generous Good
Glamorous Gifted Grieving
Handsome Helpful Horrible
Homely Harmonious Happy
Hurt Hesitant Hungry
Ill-mannered Instinctive Ill
Jolly Jealous Jovial
Kind-hearted Knowledgeable Kind
Lovely Loner Lively
Magnificent Mysterious Mature
Nervous Naughty Nice
Pleasant Pleasing Proud
Perfect Placid Peaceful
Plucky Punctual Protective
Smiling Successful Sorrowful
Splendid Sedate Silly
Self-assured Sincere Somber
Snobbish Selfish Sore
Thoughtful Talented Tired
Tense Thrifty Troubled
Timid Truculent Testy
Upset Unbiased Unwell
Vivacious Voracious Vengeful
Wonderful Witty Wicked
Worried Wise Weary
Wild Warm Wrong
Zaftig Zany Zestful
e.g. She was in
e.g. What an adorable baby! e.g. He was a brave knight.
a jovial mood.

Following is a list of adjectives that describe shape, sound, size, time and quantity.

List of Adjectives List of Adjectives List of Adjectives List of Adjectives

Describing Shape Describing Size Describing Time Describing Quantity
Broad Big Ancient Abundant
Crooked Colossal Annual Bountiful
Circular Great Brief Cumbersome
Distorted Gigantic Early Empty
Flat Huge Fast Extra
Hollow Large Late Few
Narrow Miniature Modern Heavy
Round Mammoth Old Myriad
Square Petite Rapid Many
Skinny Tall Swift Multiple
Steep Thin Slow Numerous
Wide Tiny Young Substantial
e.g.
e.g. A skinny boy e.g. A miniature train e.g. Myriad stars
An ancient manuscript

The following are lists of descriptive adjectives that describe sound, taste, touch
and color.
List of Adjectives List of Adjectives List of Adjectives List of Adjectives
Describing Sound Describing Taste Describing Touch Describing Color
Blaring Bitter Hard Azure
Cooing Delicious Loose Aqua
Deafening Fresh Rough Blue
Loud Hot Smooth Black
Melancholic Icy Slippery Crimson
Noisy Juicy Sticky Cyan
Soft Spicy Sharp Gold
Shrill Sweet Scattered Green
Squeaking Sour Soft Magenta
Silent Salty Tender Orange
Thundering Tasty Uneven Pink
Whispering Tasteless Wet Turquoise
e.g. Blaring loudspeaker e.g. Delicious pastry e.g. Rough surface e.g. Green diamond

Usage of Descriptive Adjectives

If you wish to use more than one descriptive adjective, you need to follow certain
rules of usage. The descriptive adjective follows the opinion adjective. To
understand this, consider the following example.
e.g. A beautiful, green emerald.
In the above example, both 'beautiful' and 'green' are descriptive adjectives. But
the adjective 'beautiful' is an opinion or a general adjective that may differ from
person to person. On the other hand, 'green' is a specific adjective that defines an
emerald. Therefore, when more descriptive adjectives have to be used, they should
follow the manner illustrated below.
e.g. A black, wooden door.
A nice, big bungalow.

To understand the usage of adjectives clearly, they are also further classified into
the following sub-types.

Predicate Adjectives

Predicate adjectives affirm an attribute of the subject. In simpler words, these

adjectives modify the subject in the sentence. There is always a linking verb that
connects the subject to the predicate adjective.
e.g. The cake is tasty.
Here the predicate adjective 'tasty' describes the subject 'the cake'.

Adjective Degrees

When an adjective describes a singe noun, it is the positive degree of adjective;

whereas when the adjective denotes comparison between two nouns, it is the
comparative degree of adjective. The superlative degree of adjective is used when
the comparison is between many nouns.
e.g. A is a tall building (positive degree)
B is taller than A (comparative degree)
C is the tallest building (superlative degree)

Participial Adjectives

When participles express a quality of the nouns i.e. participles function as

adjectives, they are known as participial adjectives. There are two types of
participial adjectives; the ones ending with 'ing' and the ones ending with 'ed'.
e.g. The program was boring
We were bored at the program.