If you are looking for ways to enliven your writing and speech, this classic collection from Greenville Kleiser includes a huge number of descriptive paired words.
You can review these lists when you are struggling for descriptive language for your writing, and you can also use them to develop your vocabulary by identifying, looking up, and learning words you don't know.
Q
quackery and incompetence
quaintness and oddity
qualities and gifts
quarrel and wrangle
queer and affected
querulous and plaintive
quibble and fabricate
quickness and agility
quiet and unobtrusive
quintessential and nuclear
quips and cranks
quirks and graces
quivering and fearful
quizzical and whimsical
R
racked and oppressed
racy and incisive
rage and apprehension
rank and learning
rant and gush
rapacity and villainy
rapidity and precision
rapt and silent
rapture and enthusiasm
rare and exquisite
rashness and heedlessness
ready and spontaneous
real and positive
realistic and effective
reasonable and practical
rebellion and disloyalty
rebuffs and anxieties
receptive and responsive
recognized and honored
recoil and reaction
reconciliation and peace
recondite and abstruse
reconnoiter and explore
recreation and amusement
rectitude and delicacy
redeeming and transforming
refined and dignified
refreshing and invigorating
regard and esteem
regret and remorse
regular and symmetrical
rejection and scorn
reliable and trustworthy
relief and redress
remarkable and interesting
remorseful and sullen
remote and distant
rend and devastate
repellent and ungracious
repetition and reiteration
repress and silence
repugnance and aversion
repulsive and loathsome
resentment and indignation
reserve and coyness
resistless and implacable
resolution and effort
resonant and tuneful
resourceful and unscrupulous
respected and obeyed
responsibilities and burdens
restive and bored
restless and impatient
retaliation and revenge
reticence and repose
revered and cherished
reverses and disasters
revised and corrected
revolution and sedition
rhapsodies and panegyrics
richness and fertility
ridicule and censure
right and praiseworthy
rigid and inexpressive
ripeness and plenitude
rivals and antagonists
roar and ring
robust and rugged
rococo and affected
romantic and pathetic
rough and barren
roundabout and complicated
roused and stimulated
rude and fiery
rugged and inaccessible
rumors and impressions
rushing and gurgling
rust and disuse
Go back to the Main Page of Descriptive Word Pairs... or ... Go to the Next Page: Descriptive Word Pairs, Page 16 (S).
Editor's note: This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is excerpted and adapted from Project Gutenberg's Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, by Greenville Kleiser.
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