English – Prof.

Guillermina Gomez – Year 7&8

Vocabulary: Adjectives related to Characters / Avoiding Nice

You need your writing to have varied vocabulary so that it can wow your readers.

The words below may come in handy when describing characters. Complete the
table, finding the dictionary definition of the word and then create a sentence
including the word. The first one has been done as an example.

Word Dictionary definition Sentence

Something that shows deep Her melancholic stare held

melancholic
sadness and sorrow. untold secrets.

avaricious

enigmatic

gluttonous

coercive

amiable

fabricated

nuanced

demure

cynical

flabbergasted

gratuitous

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 English – Prof. Guillermina Gomez – Year 7&8
Vocabulary: Adjectives related to Characters / Avoiding Nice

Avoiding ‘nice’
Nice is such an overused word. You can make your writing more interesting and
descriptive simply by choosing other, more appropriate adjectives. For example,
‘a nice meal’ could be described as tasty, satisfying or delicious.

Remember that an adjective beginning with a vowel sound will take ‘an’ rather
than ‘a’ as in – ‘an appetizing smell’ but ‘a useful gift’.

Activity

Using a thesaurus or dictionary to help you, find three different adjectives to

replace ‘nice’ in the following phrases.
Extra challenge! Try not to use any adjective more than once:

a nice peach
a nice man

a nice woman

a nice tune

a nice armchair

a nice sunset

nice handwriting

a nice garden

a nice dress

a nice party

a nice smell

a nice castle

a nice gift

nice weather

nice manners

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