Lists of adjectives

Adjective Definition - What are Adjectives?

Adjectives are describing words, such as blue, angry, cold, dry and hard. Technically, an adjective is described as modifying or quantifying a noun or pronoun, but an easier way to look at the definition of adjectives is that an adjective tells us more and gives us extra information about something. For example, if someone said: “It’s a warm day”, the adjective warm is giving us extra information about the noun day.  What are adjectives? Adjectives are words that make sentences more interesting and add spice to writing.

1. Jason gave me a piercing look before he shut the open
2. The Titanic was a great movie, but it was long and sad!
3. Lauren has excellent managerial skills and is a superb listener.

Adjectives Position - Where to Position an Adjective?

Normally, adjectives are positioned before the noun that they describe: the yellow ribbon, the heavy box. These adjectives are said to be attributive, meaning they qualify the nouns. However, if a linking verb such as be or seem is used, the adjective becomes predicative and can be placed after the noun: the ribbon is yellow, the box seems heavy. Attributive adjectives are used like this: Poor, sick Robert won’t be coming to work today, he has a bad cold. It takes longer to get there on the two-lane bumpy road than on the new fast highway. Predicative adjectives are used like this:

1. Robert seems sick.
2. The road is bumpy.In some cases, adjectives can be said to be postpositive, coming after the noun: There are plenty of rooms available. Postpositive adjectives are not used as often as attributive or predicative adjectives:The blue boat sailed on the rough seas (attributive)The teddy-bear is soft and fluffy (predicative) The firemen found the buildings ablaze, with the damage catastrophic (postpositive) Sometimes these different adjective positions can be combined in a sentence: The soft (attributive) teddy-bear is also fluffy (predicative) The tired (attributive) firemen found the buildings ablaze (postpositive). The damage was catastrophic (predicative).

 

Adjective Degrees - What are Adjective Degrees?

Adjectives can be used to describe different degrees of comparison about something. For example, we can say that something is large, but we could also say it is larger (than something else) and the largest (of all) when comparing it to other things. These terms seem complicated, but they are just a way of using adjectives to compare one thing to another. Thus, we can breakdown adjectives into the following degree groups: Positive Adjectives: small, old, fast. Comparative Adjectives: smaller, older, faster. Superlative Adjectives:  smallest, oldest, fastest. I am small. The old men. The fast runner. Examples of comparative adjectives:

1. Smaller
2. Older
3. Faster

I am smaller than you. The older men knew more than the younger men. The faster runner won the race. Examples of superlative adjectives:

1. Smallest
2. Oldest
3. Fastest

Bilbo was the smallest of all hobbits. She is the oldest woman in America. Usain Bolt is the fastest man on the planet. As you can see, a positive adjective can become a comparative one by adding “er” and a superlative adjective by adding “est”. However, a small group of adjectives do not follow this rule. Those that don’t are called irregular comparative and superlative adjectives. For example, the adjective good in its comparative form is better, not good(er), and is best in its superlative form, not good(est). Other examples include: far, farther, farthest and bad, worse, worst. Examples of irregular comparative and superlative adjectives:

1. Good, Better, Best
2. Bad, Worse, Worst
3. Far, Further, Furthest

Shakespeare is good, but Mark Twain is much better. However, Hemingway is best of all. In addition, some adjectives will not change at all when used as comparative or superlative. Usually, these will take the addition of the words ‘more’ and ‘most’ to make the comparison. Examples:

1. I am an interesting person (positive)
2. He is more interesting than you (Comparative)
3. Sylvia Plath is the most interesting of all poets (Superlative)

Other examples:

1. Beautiful
2. More beautiful
3. Most beautiful
4. Intelligent,
5. More intelligent
6. Most intelligent
7. Practical
8. More practical
9. Most practical

Amy was beautiful, but Jo was more intelligent. Beth was certainly more practical than Jo and Amy However, Meg was the most practical, beautiful and intelligent of all the March sisters.

Here is a list of 1000+ Adjectives