Descriptive Adjectives

( also known as Adjectives of Quality/Qualitative Adjectives/)

Descriptive Adjectives give more information about the quality of a thing or person. They describe qualities such as good and bad, beauty and ugly, merits and demerits, shape and size, state, action, colour  feelings, time, sound, taste, appearance, age etc.,

Descriptive Adjectives answer the question: (of what kind or quality of a person or thing?)

Here some of the commonly used categories of the Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality) have been mentioned below.

Adjectives that describe appearance:

short, tall, young, old, low, high, small, large, blond, brunette, beautiful, ugly, lovely, neat, nervous, pleasant, perfect, smiling, splendid, bright, confident, cheerful, clumsy, dull, fair,  gentle, glamorous, handsome, timid, upset, vivacious, wonderful, worried etc.,

Adjectives that describe personality:

courageous, affectionate, friendly, polite, nice, lazy, adventurous, sensitive, ambitious, arrogant, creative, charismatic, compassionate, mean, modest, vain, practical, mysterious, energetic, generous, optimistic, pessimistic, passionate, loyal etc.,

Adjectives that describe feelings:

happy, sad, excited, angry, joyful, disturbed, faithful, fine, frustrated, good, gloomy, horrible, nervous, content, thirsty, calm, depressed, wonderful, confused, ecstatic, dizzy, fulfilled, mad, inspired, sleepy, proud, unhappy, sorrowful, comfortable etc.,

Adjectives that describe shape:

flat, oval, square, circular, symmetrical, triangular, broad, curved, round, cylindrical, sharp, distorted, wide, hollow, pointy, straight, solid etc.,

Adjectives that describe size:

tall, thin, great, tiny, long, thick, short, big, large, huge, tiny, small etc.,

Adjectives that describe time:

new, brief, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, annual, old, late, rapid, slow, swift, young, latest etc.,

Adjectives that describe condition:

dry, wet, clean, dirty, alive, dead, good, great, bad, healthy, unhealthy, hot, cold, quiet, loud etc.,

Adjectives that describe the sound:

loud, noisy, silent, soft, shrill, whispering, melancholic, deafening, thundering, squeaking, calm, loud, quiet etc.,

Adjectives that describe taste: 

yummy, salty, fruity, minty, soft, hard, bitter, tasty, less, fresh, salty, hot, icy, delicious, spicy, sweet, juicy, sour, disgusting, dry, savoury, crunchy etc.,

Adjectives describing touch:

dry, wet, tender, hard, rough, smooth, scattered, sticky, slippery, sharp, soft, loose etc.,

Adjectives that describe color:

aqua, black, white, blue, gold, crimson, cyan, red, green, yellow, magenta, orange, pink etc.,

These adjectives are of two types: Simple and Compound

Simple Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality):

Examples:

aggressive, alert, alive, ancient, anxious, arrow. attractive, average, bad, beautiful, beige, better, big, bitter, black, blue, brown, bumpy, busy, calm, careful, cheap, chestnut, circular, clear, cold, combative, cool, cotton, crazy, crooked, crystal, dangerous, dark, dead, delicious, dim, drab, dry, dull, dusty, elderly, excited, expensive, fancy, fat, few, filthy, fresh, fuzzy, giant, good, graceful, granite, green, handsome, happy, hard, harsh, hollow, hot, huge, hungry, intelligent, large, lazy, light, long, lovely, low, massive, metallic, mellow, modern, new, noisy, oak, octagonal, old, orange, oval, petite, pink, picturesque, plain, plastic, poor, puny, purple, quiet, rainy, red, rich, right, round, sad, safe, salty, sane, scared, shallow, sharp, shiny, short, shrill, shy, skinny, small, soft, solid, sore, sour, square, steep, sticky, strong, superior, swift, tan, tall, tart, teak, teeny, terrible, tiny, tired, thin, tremendous, triangular, ugly, unusual, weak, weary, wet, whispering, white, wild, wooden, woolen, wrong, yellow, young etc.

Compound Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality):

Compound adjectives are generally formed by combining two words together. Here both these words are linked with a hyphen to avoid any kind of confusion and ambiguity.

Just observe the following sentences.

1. There is a man eating lion.
2. There is a man-eating lion.

In the first sentence without the hyphen, we get the meaning that man is eating the lion

In the second sentence with the hyphen, we get the meaning that it is a lion that eats men.

Examples of Compound Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality):

baby-faced, brand-new, bow-legged, broken-hearted, bull-headed, candy-stripped, co-operative, four-sided, freckle-faced, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, heavy-handed, high-heeled, ice-cold, ill-mannered,  left-handed, life-giving, life-saving, long-legged, long-winded, man-eating, middle-aged, next-door, pigeon-toed, red-blooded, self-centered, self-made, short-tempered, short-sighted, sure-footed, thin-skinned, tight-fisted, three-headed, well-being, whole-hearted, up-to-date, etc.

Examples in Sentences:

Simple Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality)

1. He is a clever boy.
2. The rose is a beautiful flower.
3. Lily is a lovely flower.
4. Mohan is a sincere guy.
5. India is a developing country.
6. Yashu is a cute girl.
7. You cannot lift this heavy box.
8. They have a black dog.
9. Sridevi is an intelligent girl.
10. Mumbai is a crowded city.
11. Our correspondent is a dynamic person.
12. The dog is a faithful animal.
13. This is a very big hotel in Hyderabad.
14. Calcutta is a large city in India.
15. This businessman is an honest person in the town.

Compound Descriptive Adjectives (Adjectives of Quality):

1.  He is an ill-mannered fellow.
2. Jhansi is a part-time lecturer.
3. In this distance yoga course, there are many middle-aged people
4. This company has recently released a brand-new software.
5. They are not ready to give us any up-to-date information.

• What is an Adjective
• Proper Adjectives
• Adjectives of Quality (Qualitative Adjectives/Descriptive Adjectives)
• Adjectives of Quantity (Quantitative Adjectives)
• Adjectives of Number (Numeral Adjectives)
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Interrogative Adjectives
• Distributive Adjectives
• Possessive Adjectives (Pronominal)
• Emphasizing Adjectives
• Exclamatory Adjectives
• Participle Adjectives
• Relative Adjectives
• Compound Adjectives