100 Exquisite Adjectives

100 Exquisite Adjectives 100 Exquisite Adjectives 100 Exquisite Adjectives By Mark Nichol Adjectives descriptive words that modify nouns often come under fire for their cluttering quality, but often it’s quality, not quantity, that is the issue. Plenty of tired adjectives are available to spoil a good sentence, but when you find just the right word for the job, enrichment ensues. Practice precision when you select words. Here’s a list of adjectives: Adamant: unyielding; a very hard substance Adroit: clever, resourceful Amatory: sexual Animistic: quality of recurrence or reversion to earlier form Antic: clownish, frolicsome Arcadian: serene Baleful: deadly, foreboding Bellicose: quarrelsome (its synonym belligerent can also be a noun) Bilious: unpleasant, peevish Boorish: crude, insensitive Calamitous: disastrous Caustic: corrosive, sarcastic; a corrosive substance Cerulean: sky blue Comely: attractive Concomitant: accompanying Contumacious: rebellious Corpulent: obese Crapulous: immoderate in appetite Defamatory: maliciously misrepresenting Didactic: conveying information or moral instruction Dilatory: causing delay, tardy Dowdy: shabby, old-fashioned; an unkempt woman Efficacious: producing a desired effect Effulgent: brilliantly radiant Egregious: conspicuous, flagrant Endemic: prevalent, native, peculiar to an area Equanimous: even, balanced Execrable: wretched, detestable Fastidious: meticulous, overly delicate Feckless: weak, irresponsible Fecund: prolific, inventive Friable: brittle Fulsome: abundant, overdone, effusive Garrulous: wordy, talkative Guileless: naive Gustatory: having to do with taste or eating Heuristic: learning through trial-and-error or problem solving Histrionic: affected, theatrical Hubristic: proud, excessively self-confident Incendiary: inflammatory, spontaneously combustible, hot Insidious: subtle, seductive, treacherous Insolent: impudent, contemptuous Intransigent: uncompromising Inveterate: habitual, persistent Invidious: resentful, envious, obnoxious Irksome: annoying Jejune: dull, puerile Jocular: jesting, playful Judicious: discreet Lachrymose: tearful Limpid: simple, transparent, serene Loquacious: talkative Luminous: clear, shining Mannered: artificial, stilted Mendacious: deceptive Meretricious: whorish, superficially appealing, pretentious Minatory: menacing Mordant: biting, incisive, pungent Munificent: lavish, generous Nefarious: wicked Noxious: harmful, corrupting Obtuse: blunt, stupid Parsimonious: frugal, restrained Pendulous: suspended, indecisive Pernicious: injurious, deadly Pervasive: widespread Petulant: rude, ill humored Platitudinous: resembling or full of dull or banal comments Precipitate: steep, speedy Propitious: auspicious, advantageous, benevolent Puckish: impish Querulous: cranky, whining Quiescent: inactive, untroublesome Rebarbative: irritating, repellent Recalcitrant: resistant, obstinate Redolent: aromatic, evocative Rhadamanthine: harshly strict Risible: laughable Ruminative: contemplative Sagacious: wise, discerning Salubrious: healthful Sartorial: relating to attire, especially tailored fashions Sclerotic: hardening Serpentine: snake-like, winding, tempting or wily Spasmodic: having to do with or resembling a spasm, excitable, intermittent Strident: harsh, discordant; obtrusively loud Taciturn: closemouthed, reticent Tenacious: persistent, cohesive, Tremulous: nervous, trembling, timid, sensitive Trenchant: sharp, penetrating, distinct Turbulent: restless, tempestuous Turgid: swollen, pompous Ubiquitous: pervasive, widespread Uxorious: inordinately affectionate or compliant with a wife Verdant: green, unripe Voluble: glib, given to speaking Voracious: ravenous, insatiable Wheedling: flattering Withering: devastating Zealous: eager, devoted Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Punctuate References to Dates and Times"Confused With" and "Confused About"Quiet or Quite?

Grammar Tips What Is a Sentence Fragment - Get Proofed!

Grammar Tips What Is a Sentence Fragment - Get Proofed! Grammar Tips: What Is a Sentence Fragment? Being proofreaders, we’re keen on keeping things grammatical. As such, we feel sad when we see a sentence that’s been left incomplete. It’s like the linguistic version of an abandoned puppy. But what is it that makes a sentence complete? And is an incomplete sentence always wrong? Our guide to sentence fragments can answer your questions and help you avoid errors in your work. The Sentence Fragment A sentence fragment is, quite simply, an incomplete sentence. At its most basic, a sentence needs a subject (i.e., something or someone to perform an action) and a verb (i.e., an action or state of being). Subject Verb Phrase The bird†¦ †¦flew away. If a sentence is missing a subject or a verb, it will be incomplete (i.e., a sentence fragment): Fragment (No Subject): Flew away. Fragment (No Verb): The bird. Neither of these is a complete sentence, so we don’t know what the author meant. In other cases, though, sentence fragments may have a subject and a verb while still being incomplete. For example: The bird pecked my. Here, we have the subject â€Å"bird† and verb â€Å"pecked,† but there is something missing after â€Å"my.† This is because â€Å"pecked† is a transitive verb, so it needs an object (i.e., something that is being acted on). The more complex a sentence gets, the easier it is to miss something like this. Are Sentence Fragments Always Wrong? No! Sentence fragments are common. In literature, for example, using a short sentence fragment can be a good way of changing the pace or tone of a piece of writing. Compare the following: No Fragment: The budgie was small, but loud. Fragment: The budgie was small. But loud. In the second, â€Å"But loud† is technically a sentence fragment. But by using a period instead of a comma, the author adds a dramatic pause before the fragment to emphasize how loud the budgie is. I am budgie. Hear me roar. More generally, we all use sentence fragments in our own lives. And you’ll find them used in advertising and pop culture all the time! As long as you can understand them, this isn’t a problem. How to Avoid â€Å"Bad† Fragments Sentence fragments become an issue when it is hard to tell what someone is saying. For example: The canary was singing because. Here, there’s obviously something missing from the sentence, since â€Å"because† is meant to introduce a reason. As such, this fragment would need completing before it makes sense. In other cases, we might understand what the author means by a sentence fragment, but unless there is a good reason for using one, it is still better to write in full sentences. For instance: The study examined several species. Including canaries, budgies and doves. Here, the clause that starts with â€Å"Including† is a fragment, though we can guess that it’s a list of birds included in the study. However, since there’s no reason to use a sentence fragment here, it would be better to remove the period and join the clauses with a comma: The study examined several species, including canaries, budgies and doves. The most important thing is that every sentence has a main clause including a subject and verb, but watch out for other sentences that seem unfinished or ambiguous throughout your work.