Vocabulary for describing characters
Choose precise adjectives for confidence, kindness, outlook, trust, truthfulness, patience, seriousness, and enjoyment of fun.
Character adjectives describe patterns in how people think or behave. Confident people believe in their ability and success. Generous people give money or time to help others, while optimistic people think positively. Serious people are usually calm and do not laugh often. Reliable people can be trusted, honest people tell the truth, patient people wait without becoming angry, and fun-loving people enjoy jokes and funny stories.
Key terms
| Clue | Adjective |
|---|---|
| belief in ability | confident |
| giving help | generous |
| positive outlook | optimistic |
| calm, little laughter | serious |
| trust | reliable |
| truth | honest |
| waiting without anger | patient |
| jokes and funny stories | fun-loving |
- 1Find the clue: If the sentence says a person never lies, the clue is truthfulness.
- 2Choose: Truthfulness matches honest.
- 3Check: Reliable is broader trust, so use it only when trust is the requested meaning.
Honest focuses on telling the truth; reliable focuses on being someone others can trust.
Use the exact action or attitude in the context as the deciding clue.
Rules
- 1Use confident for belief in one's own ability and success.
- 2Use generous for readiness to give money or time to help others.
- 3Use optimistic for positive thinking and serious for calm behaviour with little laughter.
- 4Use reliable when someone can be trusted and honest when someone tells the truth.
- 5Use patient for waiting a long time without anger.
- 6Use fun-loving for enjoying jokes and funny stories.
- 7Match the adjective to the requested meaning even when another adjective could fit a different detail about the person.
Practice
2 easy · 2 medium · 2 hard
Up to 10 random questions per test