tone words 1-50

this took me an hour

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

elegiac

pertaining to an elegy; expressing sorrow; mournful; plaintive

elitist

a sense of being part of a superior or privileged group; arrogant; pompous; haughty

eloquent

persuasive, fluent and graceful in discourse highly; vividly or movingly expressive of an emotion

embittered

to be filled with bitterness or resentment; hostile. One can also embitter or fill with bitterness

erudite

deeply learned; scholarly; intellectual

facetious

playful; humorous; flippant; sarcastic (associated with satire)

farcical

pertaining to farce; ludicrous; absurd

fatalistic

the doctrine that all events are predetermined by fate and therefore unalterable by man; submission to fate; resigned

flippant

marked by disrespectful levity; sarcastic; not showing a serious or respectful attitude

foreboding

a dark sense of impending evil; ominous; premonitory; portentous

frivolous

unworthy of serious attention; insignificant; trivial

galling

causing acute irritation, exasperation , discomfort or disgust; inflammatory

giddy

playfully silly

glib

superficial; insincere; slick or smooth talking

iconoclastic

characterized by attacks on cherished beliefs or institutions; irreverent; heretical

incredulous

disbelieving; skeptical; expressing disbelief

indifferent

characterized by a lack of partiality or bias; not mattering one way or the other; of no great importance; insignificant

indignant

taking great offense to a moral basis

inflammatory

arousing strong emotion

insolent

presumptuous and insulting in manner or speech; arrogant; haughty disrespect

introspective

given to private thought; contemplative; reflective

ironic

the opposite of what is expected to happen

irreverent

lacking in reverence; disrespectful; iconoclastic; sacrilegious

lackadaisical

lacking spirit or interest; languid; indifferent; apathetic

lambasting

to give a thrashing; whip; beat; to scold sharply; berate