List of Descriptive Adjectives (Definition, Examples, Grammar)

What are descriptive adjectives? How do they work? What are words that we can use to help us be more descriptive? These are all great questions. Adjectives help us to modify nouns. And assist in describing the world around us. Learn everything you need to know about descriptive adjectives in this comprehensive guide.

What Are Descriptive Adjectives?

An adjective is any word that’s used to modify a noun. There are different kinds of adjectives, of which descriptive adjectives are the most common. A descriptive adjective is a word that’s used to describe a noun. Specifically, they are words that describe a place, a person, or a thing. Descriptive adjectives can add clarity as well as detail to a sentence.

With descriptive adjectives, you can add more meaning to your sentence. A descriptive adjective can be a color, a size, a shape, as well as other descriptive details.

‘She was an adorable girl.’ Here, the word ‘adorable’ is a descriptive adjective that describes what kind of a girl the subject is.

Another example would be, ‘That’s a beautiful house.’ Here, the adjective ‘beautiful’ describes what kind of a house is being spoken of.

Order of Descriptive Adjectives

You should have some idea of what the descriptive adjective definition is. You can use just one adjective in your sentence or several of them. Multiple adjectives can be used to describe the same noun. In such cases, it’s common to find commas separating the adjectives.

Even if you haven’t studied the order of descriptive adjectives in detail, if you’re a native English speaker, you will still be able to tell when the adjectives are placed out of order.

Order of Descriptive Adjectives

Multiple adjectives can be used to describe the same noun. In these cases, it’s common to find commas separating the adjectives.

Even if you haven’t studied the order of descriptive adjectives in detail, if you’re a native English speaker, you will still be able to tell when the adjectives are placed out of order. The sentence is likely to ‘sound wrong’ to you.

These should also be placed according to the order of adjectives. The order of adjectives is given below:

• Demonstrative/quantitative adjectives
• Quality/opinion
• Size
• Age
• Shape
• Color
• Origin/proper adjectives
• Purpose

Even when using just descriptive adjectives, you’ll still need to follow the order of adjectives.

Types of Descriptive Adjectives

By now, you should know a little about descriptive adjectives. But what exactly are the words that are considered descriptive adjectives? You can break down the list of descriptive adjectives into three categories:

• Simple adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Proper adjectives

Now let’s look at examples of these descriptive adjectives individually.

List of Descriptive Adjectives

By now, you should know a little about descriptive adjectives. But what exactly are the words that are considered descriptive adjectives? You can break down the list of descriptive adjectives into three categories:

• Simple adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Proper adjectives

Now let’s look at examples of these descriptive adjectives individually.

Simple Descriptive Adjectives

A simple descriptive adjective is a primary adjective used to describe a noun. These kinds of adjectives are usually single words that aren’t proper nouns. You can also combine simple descriptive adjectives with other adjectives. Now let’s look at some examples of simple descriptive adjectives.

So, what are descriptive adjectives exactly? An adjective is any word that’s used to modify a noun. There are different kinds of adjectives, of which descriptive adjectives are the most common. A descriptive adjective is a word that’s used to describe a noun. Specifically, they are words that describe a place, a person, or a thing. Descriptive adjectives can add clarity as well as detail to a sentence.

With descriptive adjectives, you can add more meaning to your sentence. A descriptive adjective can be a color, a size, a shape, as well as other descriptive details. Let’s look at some descriptive adjective examples to understand better what they are.

‘She was an adorable girl.’ Here, the word ‘adorable’ is a descriptive adjective that describes what kind of a girl the subject is. Another example would be, ‘That’s a beautiful house.’ Here, the adjective ‘beautiful’, describes what kind of a house is being spoken of.

Words Starting With A

• Attractive
• Adorable
• Aloof
• Alive
• Ashamed
• Amused
• Agreeable
• Adventurous
• Awful
• Anxious
• Arrogant

Words Starting With B

• Bad
• Black
• Beautiful
• Busy
• Bright
• Brown
• Blushing
• Blue
• Brave

Words Starting With C

• Calm
• Cautious
• Cheerful
• Charming
• Clean
• Clever
• Clear
• Clumsy
• Cooperative
• Creepy
• Cruel
• Crowded

Words Starting With D

• Disturbed
• Dull
• Dark
• Dangerous
• Delightful
• Difficult
• Drab
• Distinct

Words Starting With E

• Easy
• Eager
• Elegant
• Evil
• Expensive
• Embarrassed
• Energetic
• Enchanted
• Exciting

Words Starting With F

• Famous
• Faithful
• Foolish
• Fantastic
• Fragile
• Fine
• Filthy
• Fancy
• Funny

Words Starting With G

• Gifted
• Generous
• Glamorous
• Grumpy
• Gorgeous
• Good
• Gleaming
• Glorious
• Green

Words Starting With H

• Healthy
• Happy
• Homeless
• Helpless
• Hilarious
• Hurt
• Hungry

Words Starting With I

• Impossible
• Impromptu
• Important
• Innocent
• Itchy
• Inquiring
• Inexpensive
• Improvised

Words Starting With J

• Joyous
• Jittery
• Jealous

Words Starting With K

• Knightly
• Kind

Words Starting With L

• Long
• Lonely
• Lively
• Lazy
• Lucky
• Lovely
• Light

Words Starting With M

• Mysterious
• Mushy
• Muddy
• Modern
• Magnificent

Words Starting With N

• Nice
• Naughty
• Nervous
• Nutty
• Niche

Words Starting With O

• Open
• Odd
• Obnoxious
• Obedient
• Orange
• Outstanding
• Outrageous

Words Starting With P

• Poor
• Purple
• Proud
• Pleasant
• Puzzled
• Pink
• Poised
• Powerful

Words Starting With Q

• Quizzical
• Quaint
• Queer

Words Starting With R

• Repulsive
• Realistic
• Relieved
• Red
• Repelling
• Rich
• Repulsive

Words Starting With S

• Sore
• Shiny
• Scary
• Splendid
• Smiling
• Silly
• Spotted
• Selfish

Words Starting With T

• Tasty
• Talented
• Tough
• Tired
• Terse
• Troubling

Words Starting With U

• Upset
• Unusual
• Uninterested
• Ugly
• Uptight

Words Starting With V

• Victorious
• Vast
• Varied

Words Starting With W

• White
• Wandering
• Witty
• Wicked
• Wild
• Wide
• Weary
• Wrong

Words Starting With Y

• Young
• Yellow

Words Starting With Z

• Zealous

Compound Descriptive Adjectives

Now, it’s time to learn about descriptive adjectives that are compound. These are adjectives where more than one word is used to describe the noun. Usually, compound adjectives are hyphenated.

Words Starting With B

• Broken-hearted
• Baby-faced
• Bull-headed

Words Starting With C

• Child-wanted

Words Starting With D

• Densely-populated

Words Starting With E

• English-speaking

Words Starting With F

• Full-time
• Freckle-faced

Words Starting With G

• Good-natured

Words Starting With H

• High-heeled
• Heavy-handed
• High-spirited

Words Starting With I

• Ice-cold

Words Starting With J

• Japanese-speaking

Words Starting With K

• Kind-hearted

Words Starting With L

• Long-lasting
• Life-giving
• Long-winded

Words Starting With M

• Mouth-watering
• Middle-aged

Words Starting With N

• Next-door
• Never-ending

Words Starting With O

• Old-fashioned

Words Starting With P

• Part-time

Words Starting With Q

• Queer-sounding

Words Starting With R

• Red-blooded

Words Starting With S

• Sure-footed
• Short-haired
• Self-centered
• Short-tempered

Words Starting With T

• Tight-fisted
• Thought-provoking
• Thick-skinned

Words Starting With U

• Ultra-beautiful

Words Starting With V

• View-point

Words Starting With W

• Well-read
• Well-known
• World-famous

Words Starting With Y

• Year-long

Words Starting With Z

• Zen-like

Proper Descriptive Adjectives

Finally, let’s look at proper descriptive adjectives. Note that nouns can also be used as proper adjectives sometimes.

Words Starting With A

• American
• Alpine
• Asian
• Arthurian

Words Starting With B

• Brazilian

Words Starting With C

• Christian
• Chinese

Words Starting With D

• Darwinian
• Dutch

Words Starting With E

• European
• Euclidean
• Edwardian

Words Starting With F

• French
• Faustian
• Freudian

Words Starting With G

• German
• Gregorian
• Gandhian

Words Starting With H

• Hegelian
• Hungarian
• Hanoverian
• Hertzian

Words Starting With I

• Indian
• Ibsenian

Words Starting With J

• Julian
• Jungian
• Jeffersonian

Words Starting With K

• Kantian
• Keynesian

Words Starting With L

• Leibnitzian
• Lamarckian

Words Starting With M

• Martian
• Malthusian
• Machiavellian

Words Starting With N

• Nestorian
• Newtonian
• Noachian

Words Starting With O

• Orwellian

Words Starting With P

• Pavlovian
• Pasteurian
• Piagetian
• Plutonian
• Pretorian

Words Starting With R

• Rastafarian
• Riemannian
• Rooseveltian

Words Starting With S

• Spanish
• Shakespearean

Words Starting With T

• Thoreauvian

Words Starting With U

• Unchristian

Words Starting With V

• Voltairian
• Victorian

Words Starting With W

• Wagnerian
• Wordsworthian
• Wilsonian

Words Starting With Y

• Yeatsian

Words Starting With Z

• Zoroastrian

Descriptive Adjectives (images)