Adjective list used word

Below you will find the largest list of adjectives you are likely to find anywhere! Small lists of adjectives treat the words that are on the list as the good adjectives or the only adjectives, and the words that are not on the list as less than desirable adjectives or possibly not even adjectives at all. In short, small lists of adjectives teach very little about the true nature of adjectives. This large list of adjectives will challenge your understanding of adjectives, while at the same time catapult your vocabulary to a new level.

But first we must examine a few concepts that will help us understand what we are seeing in this list. We have three categories of words that are called or function as adjectives:

1.   True Adjectives / Descriptive Adjectives
2.   Determiners
3.   Participles / Participle Adjectives

By function as adjectives, I mean the words can fill an adjective syntactic slot. Traditional grammar still treats most kinds of determiners as adjectives, so I have included them in this list also. Participles are a highly effective and sadly neglected form of adjective. Truthfully, most participles do not fall into the category of True Adjectives; however, all of the participles on this list can be used as adjectives. In other words, all of them can be placed into at least one adjective slot.

The Adjective Slots: Attributive Adjectives and Predicate Adjectives

We have two types of adjective slots: 1) Attributive Adjectives, and 2) Predicate Adjectives. These two slots are found in three locations:

1.   Attributive Adjective in the Subject:          The small child is happy.
2.   Attributive Adjective in the Predicate:       Jim is a small child.
3.   Predicate Adjective in the Predicate:        Sue is small.

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Adjective Suffix Count of the 4,800 Adjectives

Suffixes are extremely important in word study and vocabulary development for two reasons:

1.   Suffixes help us identify what part of speech a word is likely to function as.
2.   Suffixes often transform words from one part of speech into another part of speech.

As concerns adjectives and suffixes, many adjectives are created by adding suffixes to nouns and verbs. In the table below you will find a number count of the suffixes found in our list of 4,800 adjectives. As the suffix count illustrates, some suffixes are more common than others. Also as the table indicates, certain suffixes have a few related variations.

Adjective Verification and Practice: The Test Sentences

Most students learn the same or similar adjectives year after year. But adjectives are not just beautiful; the right adjectives are also practical. However, we must expand and challenge our understanding of adjectives in order to grasp this fact, and spending time with this list does exactly that.

I created this list from scratch using a number of techniques and strategies. And in the end, I had to verify that I could use each and every one of these adjectives in an adjective slot, so I printed out this entire list and tested all of these adjectives in a few different short sentences. It was an enlightening adjective experience!

You are bound to find at least a few words where you think, “That word can’t be used as an adjective!” For this reason, I’ve included the following sentences to help you verify for yourselves that all of these are in fact adjectives. Each of these short sentences contains at least one adjective slot. These slots are not random, as they are based on English syntax. In most cases, the only word that can fit in the slot is an adjective. Illustrating this fact is the word VERY, which is used in a few of the sentences. If you remove the word VERY from two of those sentences, a verb could also fill the slot. In these particular cases, the word VERY guarantees that the word that follows it is an adjective.

As you go through the list of 4,800 adjectives, feel free to create some of your own test sentences—on paper or just in your mind!

The Key: 1, 2, and 3

On the list of 4,800 adjectives, a few special categories are marked with the following numbers: 1, 2, or 3. Let’s see what the numbers mean.

1.   (Total: 493) These words can have –er and –est added to the end of them. Adding these suffixes creates the Comparative and Superlative forms. Surprisingly, out of 4,800 adjectives, only about 500 accept –er and –est. Keep in mind that we can also place more and most in front of many adjectives in order to create Comparative and Superlative forms.   (See a complete explanation and a complete list of Comparative and Superlative Adjectives and Adverbs here.)

2.   (Total: 56) Determiners: You’ll see that determiners don’t fit into most of the sample sentences above. That’s what makes them determiners. It’s ridiculous that traditional grammar still classifies most determiners as “special adjectives.” Having said that, we should teach students about determiners when teaching them about adjectives.

3.   (Total: 53) Nouns as Adjectives: These are a type of determiner. This topic is surely a topic for further debate and discussion; however, it’s worth including a few of these on the list for discussion purposes. In one sense, we can place most nouns in front of another noun in order to create a noun functioning as a adjective. However, in most cases it will create an informal or colloquial expression. Having said that, many of 53 listed nouns-as-adjectives are extremely common.

A Note on The Danger of Word Lists:    We should be teaching students that one must analyze a word in a sentence in order to determine what part of speech it is. While it’s true that all of the following words CAN BE used as adjectives, many can also be used as nouns, verbs, etc. Put simply, these words ARE NOT adjectives; however, they can all BE USED AS adjectives. There is a difference!

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COPYRIGHT PROTECTED: This entire adjective list is copyright protected. I used a variety of techniques and software to generate this list from scratch. Everything about this list is unique, edited, and selective.