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Guide

List of adjectives: examples, types and order

What an adjective is, a big list of adjectives by category, the types of adjectives, the order of adjectives and comparatives and superlatives.

By Polarzinho ·

Polarzinho pointing at himself, surrounded by blank colorful tags, as if being described

If someone says I am a panda, they are right. If they say I am a fluffy, hungry, gaming panda, now they are complete. Those three words are adjectives.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. Here is a big list of adjectives by category, the types, the right order and how comparatives work.

Play Stop! Play Letter River

What is an adjective?

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. It usually comes before the noun (a red ball) or after a linking verb (the ball is red).

List of adjectives by category

  • Feelings: happy, sad, excited, nervous, calm, proud, bored, grateful
  • Personality: kind, brave, curious, funny, honest, patient, shy, generous
  • Size and shape: big, tiny, huge, tall, short, round, square, flat
  • Color: red, blue, golden, pale, bright, dark, colorful, silver
  • Sound: loud, quiet, noisy, squeaky, melodic, booming, silent, shrill
  • Texture: soft, rough, smooth, fluffy, sticky, bumpy, silky, crunchy
  • Taste: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, spicy, juicy, tangy, bland
  • Time and age: old, new, ancient, young, modern, early, late, recent

Need adjectives for a specific letter? The blog has a list of adjectives from A to Z.

Types of adjectives

  • Descriptive: tells what something is like (happy, blue, soft)
  • Quantitative: tells how much or how many (some, many, three)
  • Demonstrative: points to something (this, that, these, those)
  • Possessive: shows who owns it (my, your, his, her, our, their)
  • Interrogative: asks a question (which, what, whose)

The order of adjectives

When you use several adjectives, English speakers naturally follow this order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose.

  • A lovely little old round red Italian wooden toy box
  • A big new blue cotton sleeping bag

Comparatives and superlatives

  • Short adjectives: tall, taller, tallest; fast, faster, fastest
  • Long adjectives: beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
  • Irregular: good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; far, farther, farthest

Practice by playing

Adjective is one of the most fun categories in Stop!, the quick category game: you can get creative and score with answers nobody else thought of.

Stop! home screen with the options to play with the crowd or create a room with friends

PolarzinhoOn H, I wrote "hungry" for adjective. Nobody argued. They know me.

Stop!: play with the crowd or create a room with friends.

And in Letter River, every clue is vocabulary practice.

Letter River letter board next to the list of clues, with a river and mountains behind

PolarzinhoIf I had to describe the otter from Letter River in one adjective: calm. In two: calm and clever.

Letter River: the letter board and the clues beside it.

FAQ

What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb?

An adjective describes a noun (a quick fox). An adverb describes a verb, adjective or other adverb (the fox runs quickly).

Can a word be both a noun and an adjective?

Yes. "Gold" is a noun in "made of gold" and an adjective in "a gold ring".

What is the superlative of good?

Best.

Your turn

Describe your favorite animal with three adjectives in the right order. Then practice in the games below.

Play Stop! Play Letter River