2/10/2019 100 Exquisite Adjectives

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100 Exquisite Adjectives Enter keyword to search

By Mark Nichol - 2 minute read

Adjectives — descriptive words that modify nouns — often come under re for their cluttering quality, but
often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue. Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good
sentence, but when you nd just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when
you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives: Categories

Adamant: unyielding; a very hard substance Business Writing Book Reviews

Adroit: clever, resourceful
Amatory: sexual Mistakes Expressions
Animistic: quality of recurrence or reversion to earlier form
Fiction Writing Freelance Writing
Antic: clownish, frolicsome
Arcadian: serene
General Grammar
Baleful: deadly, foreboding
Bellicose: quarrelsome (its synonym belligerent can also be a noun) Grammar 101 Misused Words
Bilious: unpleasant, peevish
Boorish: crude, insensitive Punctuation Spelling
Calamitous: disastrous
Caustic: corrosive, sarcastic; a corrosive substance Style Vocabulary
Cerulean: sky blue
Writing Basics Usage Review
Comely: attractive
Concomitant: accompanying
Writing Quizzes
Contumacious: rebellious
Corpulent: obese
Crapulous: immoderate in appetite
Defamatory: maliciously misrepresenting
Didactic: conveying information or moral instruction
Dilatory: causing delay, tardy
Dowdy: shabby, old-fashioned; an unkempt woman
E cacious: producing a desired e ect
E ulgent: brilliantly radiant
Egregious: conspicuous, agrant
Endemic: prevalent, native, peculiar to an area
Equanimous: even, balanced
Execrable: wretched, detestable
Fastidious: meticulous, overly delicate
Feckless: weak, irresponsible
Fecund: proli c, inventive
Friable: brittle
Fulsome: abundant, overdone, e usive
Garrulous: wordy, talkative
Guileless: naive
Gustatory: having to do with taste or eating
Heuristic: learning through trial-and-error or problem solving
Histrionic: a ected, theatrical
Hubristic: proud, excessively self-con dent
Incendiary: in ammatory, spontaneously combustible, hot
Insidious: subtle, seductive, treacherous
Insolent: impudent, contemptuous
Intransigent: uncompromising
Inveterate: habitual, persistent

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Invidious: resentful, envious, obnoxious
Irksome: annoying
Jejune: dull, puerile
Jocular: jesting, playful
Judicious: discreet
Lachrymose: tearful
Limpid: simple, transparent, serene
Loquacious: talkative
Luminous: clear, shining
Mannered: arti cial, stilted
Mendacious: deceptive
Meretricious: whorish, super cially appealing, pretentious
Minatory: menacing
Mordant: biting, incisive, pungent
Muni cent: lavish, generous
Nefarious: wicked
Noxious: harmful, corrupting
Obtuse: blunt, stupid
Parsimonious: frugal, restrained
Pendulous: suspended, indecisive
Pernicious: injurious, deadly
Pervasive: widespread
Petulant: rude, ill humored
Platitudinous: resembling or full of dull or banal comments
Precipitate: steep, speedy
Propitious: auspicious, advantageous, benevolent
Puckish: impish
Querulous: cranky, whining
Quiescent: inactive, untroublesome
Rebarbative: irritating, repellent
Recalcitrant: resistant, obstinate
Redolent: aromatic, evocative
Rhadamanthine: harshly strict
Risible: laughable
Ruminative: contemplative
Sagacious: wise, discerning
Salubrious: healthful
Sartorial: relating to attire, especially tailored fashions
Sclerotic: hardening
Serpentine: snake-like, winding, tempting or wily
Spasmodic: having to do with or resembling a spasm, excitable, intermittent
Strident: harsh, discordant; obtrusively loud
Taciturn: closemouthed, reticent
Tenacious: persistent, cohesive,
Tremulous: nervous, trembling, timid, sensitive
Trenchant: sharp, penetrating, distinct
Turbulent: restless, tempestuous
Turgid: swollen, pompous
Ubiquitous: pervasive, widespread
Uxorious: inordinately a ectionate or compliant with a wife
Verdant: green, unripe
Voluble: glib, given to speaking
Voracious: ravenous, insatiable
Wheedling: attering
Withering: devastating
Zealous: eager, devoted

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26 Responses to “100 Exquisite Adjectives”

Rebecca on March 15, 2011 10:04 am

Fantastic list! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Talia on March 15, 2011 10:29 am

I love your site. The daily writings are magni cent. Your daily writing tips are useful! Unlike many other
writing blogs or websites out there!

Roberta B. on March 15, 2011 11:42 am

Interesting list. However, for some of the words, I see the following de nitions as more accurate:
adroit-skillful
judicious-prudent, discerningly
precipitate – should say precipitous to describe as steep. Precipitate as an adj means falling.

AmaT on March 15, 2011 1:04 pm

Thanks for sharing these. I can’t imagine writing without adjectives. It always pains me to have to cut
them.
As a writer for children, it is a challenge to nd adjectives that are new words for kids, but simple enough
for them to understand. Obviously, I cannot use “salubrious”, but “luminous,” “limpid,” “verdant,”and
“withering” are delightful.

How about a list especially for young readers?

Katie on March 15, 2011 1:26 pm

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Thanks for this! Especially for “jejune”. I heard that one spoken aloud years ago, but didn’t know how to
spell it (and no one I asked had ever heard of it), so I couldn’t look it up. Now I can nally use it!

Ken on March 15, 2011 2:42 pm

I think you meant “Recalcitrant” and not “Recalcitant”? Just a small elision, however.

Thanks for a great list.

Rod on March 15, 2011 3:31 pm

An exquisite list, in deed.

brooklyn on March 16, 2011 12:28 am

I would also say that “fecund” also means fertile. Great list!

Stephen on March 16, 2011 6:30 am

A very good list. A lot of words here that I had never heard before and several others for which I didn’t
know the de nitions.

You might like to clarify your point about ‘belligerent’, though. A belligerent is an entity participating in
war. The noun form of the adjective ‘belligerent’ is ‘belligerence’.

Nancy on March 17, 2011 9:24 am

Oh, publishers, beware! Coming your way are manuscripts populated with fecund protagonists,
mendacious antagonists, didactically sagacious guardians, and platitudinous sidekicks.

Actually, that could be fun.

Tilen on March 17, 2011 1:18 pm

really useful list. much needed thanks

Lahesha on March 17, 2011 2:46 pm

This a the PERFECT list for expanding your vocabulary, but also great for speaking professionals as well.
Sometimes I nd myself using the same words over and over as I facilitate workshops, so this will come in
handy…bookmark worthy!

Roberta B. on March 18, 2011 12:16 pm

@Lahesha – Is that the correct word? To “facilitate” a workshop? Facilitate means to make something
easier, less di cult, or free from impediment. You could conduct a workshop, moderate a worshop,
direct, guide, chair, etc.. However, just now checking “Business Speak” in Wikipedia, I see it as one of
those terms. So, check out the “Beware of Buzz Word Bingo” column (Feb 2011). “Facilitate” could be
added to that list since workshops tend to spew buzz words in abundance.

Megan “Frances” Abrahams on March 22, 2011 4:18 pm

Insidious is one of my favorites — such a pithy word. Pithy is pretty good as well. Maybe it could be
tacked on. I’m retweeting this now…

venqax on July 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Stephen: But “belligerent” is an adjective, as well as a noun…has the list been modi ed?

Katie: Don’t forget “jemay”– almost or becoming dull or puerile, and “jedecember”– exciting, witty, and
mature, but colder. And “irksall” which meand even more annoying– to everybody.

maria menounos on February 28, 2012 6:31 am

I must get across my respect for your generosity supporting those people that really want guidance on in
this situation. Your very own commitment to getting the solution all around ended up being quite
practical and has permitted others just like me to achieve their dreams. Your warm and helpful
suggestions means so much to me and a whole lot more to my fellow workers. Thanks a lot; from all of
us.

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ELBSeattle on September 01, 2012 8:17 am

I love words, and particularly adjectives. This list is wondrous fair indeed. However, many of these words
are going to come across as being self-conscious, vainglorious or simply twee. While I will always choose
the word that comes closest to the meaning I wish to convey (reticent over reluctant when I’m speaking
or writing of being hesitant to speak) I also am aware that using a highly decorative word
(rhadamanthine, for instance) can be the literary equivalent of wearing too much perfume.

suze on October 19, 2012 8:57 am

Yes indeed Stephen, agreed. Bellicose and Belligerent are not synonymous but are often used that way.
Belligerency is an instrument of the state, not just a singular person’s aggressiveness. Check out Article 9
of Japan’s Constitution for fun.

Also Corpulent, is bodily. It’s broader than the de nition given.

Still, great to see such a list.

What about a list of collective nouns? Especially birds. Ie: a Parliament of owls, a murder of crows…fun!

Donald C. Whitehead on December 13, 2015 5:17 pm

To the 4 writers and the editor! Great Job! When coming up with content that just looks and reads the
same you kinda get that same
feeling about it as you do others to some degree. You’re book marked for some exciting adjectives in my
writing.
Thanks
don

Martingerrard on December 15, 2015 4:15 pm

Superb stu , absolutely top notch.

Florida on December 25, 2015 6:29 pm

In searching for lists of adjectives to aid in the enrichment of my middle school students’ writing, I
happened across this list on stumpbleupon.com. I thought this might be the perfect resource until I
reached the word “dowdy”. What a great disappointment from dailytwritingtips.com, especially in light of
their own “About the blog”, which states, “Whether you are an attorney, manager or student, writing skills
are essential to your success. The rise of the information age – with the proliferation of emails, blogs and
social networks – makes the ability to write clear, correct English more important than ever. Daily Writing
Tips is about that.”

“Dowdy”? Seriously, M. Nichol, in 2015? Because I respect all of my students, but in this case especially my
female students, that one word is a deal breaker, for more reasons than I’ll even entertain here.

Somnath Sarkar on August 04, 2016 11:08 am

Fabulous list of adjectives..all are pretty helpful.

Tracy Kaler on August 28, 2016 6:11 pm

Some good choices here. Love arcadian and cerulean.

Gabriel on February 27, 2017 7:30 pm

I am a french student. Needless to say that this fantastic list will help me a lot. I was de nitely smitten
with these harmonious and suggestive words. Now come my challenge: be able to use all of them in my
english essays ! 😀
Thanks for sharing

V.S.Sury on May 02, 2017 4:06 am

A good, stimulating list.

Paul Scheers on November 24, 2017 6:01 pm

95% of the adjectives have a negative connotation. Some positive please?

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