Wordsmith collection

Literary Style & Mood

by Wordsmith @wordsmith

The vocabulary of tone and atmosphere. 75 words for describing style, mood and voice in writing: evocative, sardonic, haunting and beyond.

• allegorical Telling a story whose characters and events stand for something else.
• amiable Friendly, kind and easy to like.
• atmospheric Coming from or having to do with the air around the earth.
• austere Very plain and simple, without decoration or extravagance.
• baroque In the style of Western art and music of the Early Modern period.
• bleak Cheerless and miserable, with nothing good to look forward to.
• bombastic Using grand, showy words that sound important but mean little.
• brooding Thinking deeply and seriously about something.
• chaotic Extremely disorganized, with no order at all.
• cynical Doubting that other people are sincere or have honest motives.
• didactic Meant to teach something, often a moral lesson, sometimes too preachy.
• dramatic Very striking in how it looks or the effect it has.
• dystopian As bad as can be, full of human suffering and misery.
• earnest Serious and sincere in what one says or does.
• eerie Strange and frightening in a mysterious way.
• eloquent Good at expressing ideas clearly and persuasively in speech or writing.
• ephemeral Lasting only a short time before it is gone.
• evocative Bringing a memory, mood, feeling or picture strongly to mind.
• facetious Joking about serious things with humour that does not fit.
• figurative Used as a metaphor or simile and not in the literal meaning.
• flippant Treating serious things too casually or jokingly, in a way that seems disrespectful.
• florid Very elaborate and full of fancy decoration, often too much.
• flowery Using overly elaborate, fancy expressions in speech or writing.
• foreboding A feeling that something bad is about to happen.
• frank Honest and open in what you say, even when it sounds a little blunt.
• frantic In a panic, so worried or rushed that you lose control.
• gloomy Dark or dimly lit in a way that feels depressing or frightening.
• gothic Alternative letter-case form of Gothic.
• grandiloquent Using showy language full of difficult words to impress others.
• gritty Full of sand or small hard bits.
• haunting Staying in your mind and hard to forget.
• heartfelt Felt or believed deeply and sincerely.
• idyllic Extremely happy, peaceful, or pretty to look at.
• imagery Vivid description in writing or speech that puts pictures in the mind.
• ironic Strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what you expect.
• irreverent Showing no respect for things that people usually take seriously.
• jubilant Filled with great joy and high spirits.
• lighthearted Cheerful and not serious.
• lyrical Expressing feelings in a way that sounds like singing.
• macabre Shocking and horrifying because it involves death or gruesome things.
• maudlin Too sentimental and tearful, often in a self-pitying or drunken way.
• melancholic Filled with deep sadness, often of a quiet, thoughtful kind.
• melodramatic Showing far more emotion than a situation really calls for.
• metaphorical Saying one thing to stand for another, not meant literally.
• minimalist Wanting to keep things down to the smallest possible amount.
• morose Gloomy and sullen, in a bad mood that broods and does not lift.
• nostalgic Feeling a fond, wistful longing for the past.
• ominous Suggesting that something bad is going to happen.
• ornate Covered with a lot of decoration, often too much.
• pensive Deep in serious thought, often looking a little sad.
• pervasive Spreading through every part of something and affecting all of it.
• playful Full of fun, liking to play and not serious.
• poignant Stirring strong emotion, even distress, and deeply moving.
• preachy Too eager to lecture other people about right and wrong.
• sarcastic Mocking someone by saying the opposite of what you really mean.
• sardonic Scornfully mocking or cynical, often with ironic humour.
• satirical Using humour to make fun of people, ideas or society.
• saturnine Tending to be cold and gloomy in mood.
• sentimental Guided by tender feelings rather than by reason.
• sincere Really meaning what you say, without pretending.
• somber US standard spelling of sombre.
• sublime So beautiful or magnificent that it fills you with awe.
• succinct Said or written in few words, short and to the point.
• sullen In a brooding bad mood, sulky and gloomy.
• suspenseful Causing tense, anxious excitement about what will happen.
• symbolic Standing in for another thing, or acting as a sign of it.
• tense Showing signs of stress or strain, not relaxed.
• terse Brief and to the point, sometimes sharply short or curt.
• tongue-in-cheek Not intended seriously; jocular or humorous.
• uplifting Making you feel more cheerful and in a better mood.
• verbose Using or containing more words than needed.
• visceral Felt deep in the body as a strong feeling, rather than thought through.
• vivid Clear, detailed and strong, like something you can almost see.
• whimsical Acting on sudden fancies rather than reason, playful and hard to predict.
• witty Able to say clever, amusing things quickly.

Definitions from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).