tone words 1-25

abhorrent

disgusting; loathsome; repellent/ feeling repugnance or loathing

admonitory

cautionary; warning

apathetic

feeling or showing little or no emotion/ uninterested; listless; passive; indifferent

acerbic

harsh or severe; caustic; vitriolic

audacious

fearlessly daring; bold; lacking restraint or circumspection; arrogantly insolent

baffled

puzzled; confounded; bewildered

banal

repeating a worn-out convention or type; unaffecting and drearily predictable; trite; ordinary, boring, commonplace; mundane; pedestrian

bantering

good humored teasing; playful repartee; to tease or mock gently; badinage

benevolent

characterized by benevolence; kindly; of or concerned with charity; altruistic; magnanimous

bombastic

pompous; grandiloquent (in regard to one’s speech)

bucolic

of or characteristic of the countryside; peaceful or serene

ceremonial

of or characterized by ceremony; formal; ritual; worthy of respect

cynical

scornful of the motives or virtue of others; skeptical; doubtful

clinical

pertaining to or connected with a clinic; pertaining to direct observation and treatment of patients; objective, detached

condescending

to come down voluntarily to the level of inferiors with whom one is dealing; deign; to deal with people in a patronizing manner; patronizing, belittling

condemning

expressing disapproval of; censuring; criticizing; to pronounce judgment against; to sentence; to doom

comtemptuous

to look down upon with haughtiness; scornful; disdainful

contentious

argumentative; quarrelsome; belligerent; bellicose; fractious

dogmatic

characterized by an authoritative, arrogant assertion of unproved or improvable principles

derisive

mocking; scoffing

desultory

moving or jumping from one thing to another; disconnected; rambling; occurring haphazardly; random

detached

emotionally disconnected; similar to clinical or object in tone

didactic

intended to instruct; expository; morally instructive

disbelieving

to refuse to believe in; reject; incredulous

disparaging

to belittle; slight; to reduce in esteem or rank; condescending; patronizing