List Of Descriptive Words For Writing

List of Descriptive Words: Adjectives, Adverbs & Participles

Descriptive language appeals to all five of our senses: taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound. When used correctly, descriptive words can make your writing more vivid and compelling. Choose from a list of descriptive words, including adjectives, adverbs and participles, that is sure to enhance your writing.

Descriptive Words Adjectives Adverbs and Participles

Adjectives as Descriptive Words

Adjectives are the most common type of descriptive words. They help us know that a sunset is gorgeous or a cat is acrobatic. Explore a list of adjective examples.

acrobatic	adorable	adventurous
brave	bright	brilliant
concrete	conventional	delirious
foolhardy	gregarious	grim
handsome	handy	intelligent
intrepid	joyful	jubilant
keen	kooky	lanky
lazy	limp	luxurious
mediocre	mellow	miserable
nocturnal	organic	ornate
ordinary	powerless	practical
precious	questionable	quirky
radiant	rustic	sly
sophisticated	stunning	tattered
thorny	verdant	weathered

Adjectives typically come before the noun they describe. However, when you use a predicate adjective to modify your subject, you'll find the adjective after the noun. You can also use adjectives and the words after them as adjective phrases for even more descriptive power!

Adverbs as Descriptive Words

While adjectives provide further description for nouns, adverbs modify other parts of speech, including verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Adverbs describe concepts such as time, place, circumstance, manner, or degree.

amusingly	angrily	apathetically
assertively	begrudgingly	blissfully
chillingly	coyly	darkly
dazzlingly	deafeningly	dutifully
eagerly	faintly	frivolously
greedily	hastily	intelligently
kindly	lavishly	lazily
listlessly	masterfully	meagerly
methodically	neglectfully	normally
offensively	passionately	pleasantly
pointlessly	quickly	rapidly
rashly	secretly	seriously
swiftly	tactfully	teasingly
tragically	vacantly	vividly
weirdly	youthfully	zealously

As you scroll through the list of descriptive adverbs, you'll notice that the adverbs all end in -ly. However, remember that there are other examples of adverbs, like "almost" or "seldom," that do not share this ending. Using the proper amount of adverbs can really strengthen your writing.

Participles as Descriptive Words

When verbs function as describing words, they're known as participles. You'll find participles before nouns they modify, just like adjectives. Past participles end in -ed or -en, while present participles end in -ing.

acclaimed	accomplished	amazing
amused	battered	beaten
bleeding	boring	broken
confusing	chosen	complicated
condemned	crystallized	customized
depressed	disgusting	distressing
disturbing	dreaming	driven
dyed	embarrassing	exciting
fascinated	frustrating	humiliating
interesting	irritating	lying
melted	overwhelmed	puzzling
relaxing	riveting	satisfied
scared	shocking	sickening
sweeping	threatening	thrilled
tired	worried	wrinkled

It's easy to mix present participles up with gerunds, which also end in -ing. However, gerunds are verbs that function as nouns (such as "Swimming is my favorite hobby") while participles are verbs that function as adjectives (such as "Look at the swimming boy). When you use a participle and the words after it as an adjective, you're using a participial phrase. Try using them at the beginning of a sentence to vary your style!

Using Descriptive Words in Your Writing

Descriptive words help paint a picture in the reader's mind. The sentence "It was windy," might give the reader information, but it's not very descriptive. Consider how much imagery you can add with the words "gusty," "torrential," "breezy," or "windswept" in front of your nouns.

Using descriptive words can:

bring characters to life in a novel or short story
sell an item in a product advertisement
convince an audience in a persuasive writing piece
explain the setting of a news story
provide instructions for a DIY project

Using descriptors effectively makes your writing impossible to put down. Whether you're using descriptive words in poetry or informational writing, there are always opportunities to make sentences more vivid!

Describing Our World With Words

When it comes to using descriptive words, variety is key. The list of adjectives, adverbs and participles above can help you set the scene with just the right imagery. Appeal to your readers' senses with a list of descriptive words for scents. You can also discover how to describe an aquatic scene with these water words for descriptive writing.