Negative Vocabulary Word List

• None
• No one
• Nothing
• Neither
• Nowhere

Negative Personality Adjectives

List of 100 common personality adjectives that describe people negatively

• Aggressive
• Aloof
• Arrogant
• Belligerent
• Big-headed
• Bitchy
• Boastful
• Bone-idle
• Boring
• Bossy
• Callous
• Cantankerous
• Careless
• Changeable
• Clinging
• Compulsive
• Cowardly
• Cruel
• Cunning
• Cynical
• Deceitful
• Detached
• Dishonest
• Dogmatic
• Domineering
• Finicky
• Flirtatious
• Foolish
• Foolhardy
• Gussy
• Greedy
• Grumpy
• Gullible
• Harsh
• Impatient
• Impolite
• Impulsive
• Inconsiderate
• Inconsistent
• Indecisive
• Indiscreet
• Inflexible
• Interfering
• Intolerant
• Irresponsible
• Jealous
• Lazy
• Machiavellian
• Materialistic
• Mean
• Miserly
• Moody
• Narrow-minded
• Nasty
• Naughty
• Nervous
• Obsessive
• Obstinate
• Overcritical
• Overemotional
• Parsimonious
• Patronizing
• Perverse
• Pessimistic
• Pompous
• Possessive
• Pusillanimous
• Quarrelsome
• Quick-tempered
• Resentful
• Rude
• Ruthless
• Sarcastic
• Secretive
• Selfish
• Self-centred
• Self-indulgent
• Silly
• Sneaky
• Stingy
• Stubborn
• Stupid
• Superficial
• Tactless
• Timid
• Touchy
• Thoughtless
• Truculent
• Unkind
• Unpredictable
• Unreliable
• Untidy
• Untrustworthy
• Vague
• Vain
• Vengeful
• Vulgar
• Weak-willed

Negative Adverbs

• Hardly
• Scarcely
• Barely

Examples:

• I have hardly seen John working so hard.
• Barely we had reached the theatre when it started to rain.
• Scarcely Jack had finished the speech when everyone started clapping.

Negative verbs

• Doesn’t
• Isn’t
• Wasn’t
• Shouldn’t
• Wouldn’t
• Couldn’t
• Won’t
• Can’t
• Don’t

Examples of Common Negative Words

Abysmal:

• Meaning: Very great; limitless.
• Examples: His manners are abysmal.

Apathy:

• Meaning: An absence of emotion or enthusiasm.
• Examples: There is nothing worse than apathy.

Atrocious:

• Meaning: Shockingly brutal or cruel.
• Examples: She speaks French with an atrocious accent.

Bemoan:

• Meaning: Regret strongly.
• Examples: She is always bemoaning her lot.

Cold-hearted:

• Meaning: Lacking in sympathy or feeling.
• Examples: I had no idea you could be so cold-hearted.

Deplorable:

• Meaning: Bad; unfortunate.
• Examples: They were living in the most deplorable conditions.

Despicable:

• Meaning: Morally reprehensible.
• Examples: He’s a despicable human being!

Detrimental:

• Meaning: (Sometimes followed by ‘to’) causing harm or injury.
• Examples:  I can not understand this as I can not see any detrimental effect on the carp.

Dreadful:

• Meaning: Causing fear, dread or terror.
• Examples: They told us the dreadful news.

Ghastly:

• Meaning: Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror.
• Examples: I feel ghastly; I shouldn’t have drunk so much!

Grotesque:

• Meaning: Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous.
• Examples: The story was too grotesque to believe.

Gruesome:

• Meaning: Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror.
• Examples: I heard stories of gruesome tortures in prisons.

Hard-hearted:

• Meaning: Lacking in feeling, pity or warmth.
• Examples: You would have to be pretty hard-hearted not to feel something for him.

Insidious:

• Meaning: Intended to entrap.
• Examples: He is not amenable to insidious influence.

Insipid:

• Meaning: Lacking taste, flavour.
• Examples:  He’s an insipid old bore.

Malicious:

• Meaning: Marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful.
• Examples: He’s always putting about malicious rumours.

Monstrous:

• Meaning: Abnormally large.
• Examples: She endured the monstrous behaviour for years.

Noxious:

• Meaning: Injurious to physical or mental health.
• Examples: We must trace the source of these noxious gases.

Offensive:

• Meaning: The action of attacking an enemy.
• Examples:  I found her remarks deeply offensive .

Oppressive:

• Meaning: Weighing heavily on the senses or spirit.
• Examples: The country is in the grip of an extremely oppressive regime.

Pessimistic:

• Meaning: Expecting the worst possible outcome.
• Examples: Don’t be so pessimistic.

Prejudice:

• Meaning: A partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.
• Examples: A judge must be free from prejudice.

Repulsive:

• Meaning: Offensive to the mind.
• Examples: She found the idea deeply repulsive.

Ruthless:

• Meaning: Without mercy or pity.
• Examples: He is engaged in the ruthless pursuit of wealth.

Sinister:

• Meaning: Indicating evil intent or suggesting tragic developments.
• Examples:  He looked at me in a sinister way.

Vice:

• Meaning: A holding device attached to a workbench; has two jaws to hold workpiece firmly in place.
• Examples: Greed is a terrible vice.

Vicious:

• Meaning: Having the nature of vice.
• Examples: Keep away from that dog, he can be vicious.

Vile:

• Meaning: Morally reprehensible.
• Examples: He was in a vile mood.

Villainous:

• Meaning: Extremely wicked.
• Examples: He was neither heroic nor villainous, he was simply excellent.

Vindictive:

• Meaning: Disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge.
• Examples: He’s not a vindictive person.

Examples of Negation Using Negative Words