The following emotional description words, or feeling words, can be used by anyone needing to expand their emotional vocabulary. This free therapy resource can help clients articulate feelings during therapy sessions. It can also help others with learning disabilities, emotion dysregulation, mood tracking (grab 7 free mood trackers here), and other issues preventing full emotional intelligence.
Emotions and feelings can be hard to name while in the midst of actually feeling them. Sometimes you can't tell how you feel, other times you aren't sure of the right word(s) to use. Maybe you have been labeling a feeling one way, just to find out after reading this list that you could be mistaken. Will your world turn upside-down?
No!
You may have been misinformed, like many people when it comes to mental health and emotional intelligence. Or, you know someone who is. But don't worry, just below is a massive list of words to describe
how you feel
your emotional state
hidden feelings
repressed emotions
good moods
bad moods
confusing thoughts
and more
The massive list of feeling words and emotion descriptors is free to download! The massive list of feeling words to expand your emotional vocabulary is actually divided into 6 lists. Below you'll read about the 6 basic emotions for each list.
Six Basic Emotions
Dr. Paul Ekman has studied emotion, lie detection, micro-expressions, and feelings for many years. He came up with the 6 basic types of emotion. These 6 types of emotion will be used as categories to list all the other "feeling words" under as they relate.
1. Happiness
- good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy
2. Sadness
- affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful
3. Surprise
- to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness
4. Anger
- a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong; wrath; ire
5. Fear
- a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid
6. Disgust
- to offend the good taste, moral sense, etc., of; cause extreme dislike or revulsion in
Happiness
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” ― Albert Camus
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
Listed below are a few of the happiness feeling words included in the free printables! The free printables are available to you when you subscribe to Rose-Minded- no spam, no charges, no surprises!
absorbed
accepting
activated
active
admiration
affected
affectionate
alert
amazed
animate
animated
ardent
Click here to subscribe to Rose-Minded for the full list of feeling words and emotion labels!
Sadness
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” ― Jonathan Safran Foer
“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.” ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Here are a few examples of emotional vocabulary words to help you identify feelings of sadness! To get the whole list, subscribe to Rose-Minded.
troubled
unglued
unhappy
unsettled
upset
weeping
wistful
withdrawn
Surprise
“Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator. So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence -- a surprise.” ― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
“Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises. Sometimes that beauty is too much for me to handle. Do you know that feeling? When something is just too beautiful? When someone says something or writes something or plays something that moves you to the point of tears, maybe even changes you.” ― Mark Oliver Everett, Things The Grandchildren Should Know
“One of the most beneficial and valuable gifts we can give to ourselves in this life: is allowing ourselves to be surprised! It is okay if life surprises you. It's a good thing!” ― C. JoyBell C.
Grab the following emotional vocabulary words for describing 'surprise' listed below. The rest are available for download, just enter your email here and get the lists for free.
reeling
revelation
shock
shocked
shook up
speechless
staggered
startled
stuck
stumped
stun
stunned
stupefaction
stupefied
stupefy
suddenness
surprise
surprised
taken aback
thrown
thunderbolt
thunderstruck
uncertain
unexpected
unforeseen
unglued
whammy
wonder
wonderment
Anger
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ― Joe Klaas, Twelve Steps to Happiness
“The best fighter is never angry.” ― Lao Tzu
“If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.” ― Shannon L. Alder
When you're feeling angry, take a step back from the situation and breathe slowly and deeply. Use the following list of words to find the most accurate representation of your feelings.
affronted
aggravate
agitate
anger
annoyed
antagonized
apoplectic
being mad
bitter
bugged
chafed
cheesed off
choleric
convulsed
cross
discontent
displeased
displeasure
distress
disturb
drive up the wall
embitter
enrage
enraged
Fear
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“Don't be afraid of your fears. They're not there to scare you. They're there to let you know that something is worth it.” ― C. JoyBell C.
When feeling anxious, worrisome, or fearful, check out the following list of words to clear your thinking. As you identify the emotions you feel, you'll come to understand yourself and regulate your emotions better.
jealous
jittery
jumpy
leery
lily-livered
mistrustful
mousy
nerveless
nervous
nervy
overwrought
panicked
panicky
panic-stricken
perturbed
petrified
phobic
pusillanimous
quivery
rabbity
restless
running scared
scared
shaken
shaking
shaky
sheepish
Disgust
“The old endless chain of love, tolerance, indifference, aversion and disgust” ― Samuel Beckett
“I am hard to disgust, but a pretentious poet can do it” ― Marianne Moore, Complete Poems
“I had forgotten. Disgust shadows desire. Another life is never safely envied.” ― Robert Wells
This is the sixth and final list of emotional vocabulary words for 'disgust'. You can grab the full list when you enter your email; the full 6 lists should be sent in the welcome email in your inbox.
nauseous
not so hot
outraged
overwrought
particular
peaked
poorly
prim
prudish
puritanical
qualmish
queasy
queer
repelled
repulsed
revolted
rickety