Express Yourself With This List Of Emotions And Feelings

February 222023

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It isn’t always easy to describe your feelingsbut learning the vocabulary of emotions can help. According to the model developed by psychologist Paul Ekmanhumans have six basic emotions:

Butmuch like shades of colorsthere are many shades of each of these basic emotions. We are going to look at some synonyms (or near-synonyms) for each and learn how we can use these terms to add nuance and depth to our descriptions of emotional states.

happiness/happy

The first basic emotion is happiness“the quality or state of being happy.” Happy means “characterized by or indicative of pleasurecontentmentor joy.” In other words: good vibes. Happy is an adjectiveand happiness is a noun. Many emotional states have both an adjective and noun form. When possiblewe have provided both.

Other synonyms for happiness or happy are:

One example of a sophisticated synonym for happiness is euphoria“a state of intense happiness and self-confidence.” The adjectival form of this word is euphoric. If you are substituting a basic term like happiness or happy in a sentence with a more sophisticated one like euphoria or euphoricyou will want to make sure that you use the same part of speech in each. For example:

I was always happy on Christmas morning. (adjective)
I was always euphoric on Christmas morning. (adjective)
The crowd erupted in cheers of happiness. (noun)
The crowd erupted in cheers of euphoria. (noun)

Being in love can fill your whole heart with joy. Here are some idioms for expressing love when you’re that head-over-heels kind of happy.

sadness/sad

The second major emotion is a bit of a downer: sadnessalso known as sorrow. The adjectival form of sadness is sadmeaning “affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful.” Interestingly, sad comes from the Old English sædwhich once meant “satedfull.” Too much of a good thingmaybe.

Other synonyms for sadness or sad are:

fear/afraid

Fear is one of the most “primal” or immediate emotions. It’s important for keeping us aliveafter all. When one feels fearthey are afraid.

Other synonyms for fear or afraid are:

Different synonyms express different degrees and kinds of emotion. For example, terror is a more intense fear than uneasiness. Howeveremotions aren’t often neat and tidy; there is usually some overlap. One can feel multiple degrees or kinds of emotions at once. In these casesit can be helpful to pile up synonyms to really get the emotion across. For example:

We were consumed with fear thinking about the upcoming competition.
We were consumed with dread, consternationand uneasiness thinking about the upcoming competition.

disgust/disgusted

The fourth major emotion is one that might make your stomach turn: disgust“a strong distaste.” The adjective form of this meaning of disgust is disgusted. Disgust can also be used as a verb meaning “to cause extreme dislike or revulsion in,” as in “his manners disgust me.” There is a reason that disgust is closely related to the stomach: it comes from the Middle French desgouster meaning roughly “not of (good) taste.”

Other synonyms for disgust or disgusted are:

A common synonym for disgusted is loathmeaning “unwilling; reluctant; disinclined; averse.” This should not be confused with the verb loathewith a terminal -emeaning “to feel disgust or intense aversion for.”

anger/angry

Anger“a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong,” is the fifth major emotion and possibly the most unpleasant. The adjective form of anger is angry“feeling or showing anger or strong resentment.” There are a lot of colorful expressions for describing anger such as:

Other synonyms for anger or angry are:

Being angrycrankyand tired often go hand in hand. Find out more ways to express your fatigue!

surprise/surprised

It’s nice to end on one of the more pleasant of the major emotions: surprise. Surprise describes the feeling of experiencing something completely unexpected. Surprise typically goes along with feelings of confusionwhich is a theme you will see in many of its synonyms.

Other synonyms for surprise or surprised are:

As we have notedmany emotions come in adjective and noun forms. In some sentencesyou can combine both of these forms to make your emotions particularly clear. For example:

The explorers were baffled and expressed their shock at the situation.
No one on the town council was more disoriented than Mr. Joneswho seemed overwhelmed with bewilderment.

Tips for writing about emotions

Degrees of emotions

When it comes to using synonymsit is important to match the term to the degree and kind of the emotion you are describing. For exampledispirited is generally a less intense feeling of sadness than desolation. Dispirited means “discouraged; dejected; disheartened; gloomy.” Desolation means “sorrow; grief; woe.” With this in mindwhich of these synonyms for sadness would fit best into the following sentence?

The soccer team felt ______ after they lost the match 2-1.

While it is a bummer to lose a matchit probably would not cause grief (unless it was a championship game or the World Cupmaybe). Dispirited would be a better fit in this sentence. Remember to check the meaning of synonyms to see if they truly fit the feeling you are describing.

Using prepositions

One tricky thing about describing emotions in English is that often they are used with specific prepositions such as withbytotowardetc. The rules governing which prepositions to use when are complexand some emotions can be used with multiple prepositions. It is important to keep this in mind when using synonyms. If you aren’t sure which prepositions to uselook at the example sentences for the entry to give you an idea. For example:

At the courtthe royals were disgusted by the jester’s jokes.
At the courtthe royals were repulsed by the jester’s jokes.

In this caseboth disgusted and repulsed use the preposition by to describe what caused or triggered their emotion. The adjective antipathetichoweverusually uses the prepositions to or toward. Antipathetic means “opposedaverseor contrary.” Soif we use this in our sentence insteadit becomes:

At the courtthe royals were antipathetic toward the jester’s jokes.

**What is alexithymia?**

Did you know there is a word for not being able to describe emotions? It’s alexithymia“difficulty in experiencingexpressingand describing emotional responses.” With so many synonyms for the six basic emotionswe hope this helps with any difficulties along those lines you may face.

Feel like you have emotion words down? Try the quiz!

Being able to describe the full spectrum of human emotions unlocks a lot of new ways of talking about the world and the people in it. Worried you won’t have a way to remember all these words? Have no fear! Don’t lose your cool! And turn that frown upside down! You can keep track of all these feeling words with our emotions word list and test your skills with our emotions quiz!