Strong adjectives can be powerful tools to have in your language arsenal. They help you describe something more intensely compared to normal adjectives, which are great for simpler descriptions. This lesson provides essential information to English learners about what strong adjectives are and lists common strong adjectives with their meanings.
List of Strong Adjectives
- Adorable
- Ancient
- Awful
- Beautiful
- Bored
- Busy
- Careful
- Chubby
- Clean
- Clear
- Clever
- Colorful
- Colossal
- Confused
- Crazy
- Crowded
- Cruel
- Curved
- Cute
- Dark
- Dead
- Deafening
- Deep
- Distinct
- Dizzy
- Drab
- Dull
- Early
- Easy
- Elegant
- Evil
- Excited
- Expensive
- Faint
- Fancy
- Fast
- Fat
- Filthy
- Flat
- Fragile
- Frail
- Gifted
- Gigantic
- Glamorous
- Gleaming
- Gorgeous
- Graceful
- Great
- Grotesque
- Grumpy
- Handsome
- Harsh
- Helpful
- High
- High-pitched
- Hissing
- Hollow
- Homely
- Hushed
- Immense
- Large
- Late
- Lazy
- Light
- Little
- Long
- Loud
- Low
- Magnificent
- Mammoth
- Massive
- Melodic
- Miniature
- Misty
- Modern
- Motionless
- Muddy
- Mute
- Narrow
- Naughty
- Noisy
- Nutty
- Old
- Old-fashioned
- Open
- Plain
- Poised
- Precious
- Puny
- Quaint
- Quick
- Quiet
- Rapid
- Raspy
- Real
- Resonant
- Round
- Scrawny
- Shallow
- Shiny
- Short
- Shrill
- Skinny
- Slow
- Small
- Smoggy
- Soft
- Sparkling
- Spotless
- Square
- Steep
- Straight
- Strange
- Super
- Swift
- Teeny
- Terrible
- Thundering
- Tiny
- Tired
- Ugliest
- Ugly
- Unsightly
- Unusual
- Upset
- Voiceless
- Whispering
- Wicked
- Wide
- Wide-eyed
- Worried
- Young
What Are Strong Adjectives?
The best way to describe strong adjectives is by saying that they are like regular adjectives but more… strong. It sounds silly to explain it like that but it’s true. They replace regular adjectives when there is more intent behind what they’re trying to say. The most common way they are described is as if they are replacing a phrase that includes “very” + a normal adjective.
This means that a normal adjective like “good” can become something like “fantastic” which is a much stronger word with a much deeper meaning than just “good”. It’s like taking a basic word that adds a little meaning and throwing a lot more emphasis on it. Like how “ugly” can become “hideous”.
It’s also quite common to see strong adjectives preceded by adverbs like “really” or “absolutely” rather than the usual “very” you’d get with normal adjectives. For example, you could say “very good” but you wouldn’t be able to say “very fantastic”. You’d be better off with “absolutely fantastic” instead.
Common Strong Adjectives with Meanings
Fantastic
The best replacement for a simple “good” and shows that the speaker is much more entertained by the object of the sentence.
Hideous
A replacement for a word like “ugly”. It allows us to be able to visualize just how ugly the object can be from the speaker’s perspective.
Hilarious
A strong adjective to replace a word like “funny” to show you how the speaker enjoyed the object.
Terrified
A good one to replace a word like “scared”. Anyone can be scared of something. It takes a lot to make someone terrified.
Exhausted
A replacement for a word like “tired”. This is a great way to show that the speaker has literally no energy left, whereas “tired” could mean they could go on a little further.