Feeling words are the language we use to name our emotions. When we can name our feelings, we are better able to understand and share what’s going on inside us.
A feeling word list helps you expand your emotional vocabulary. This can lead to greater self-awareness and better communication.
This list explores different feelings, arranged by category for ease of use.
Understanding Categories of Feelings
Feelings can be grouped into broad categories, which can be helpful as you start to explore and name your own emotions. It’s important to remember that emotions are complex and can overlap. You might experience multiple emotions at once, or find that your feelings shift and change over time.
Negative Emotions
- Sadness and Discouragement: These emotions, which can include feeling broken-hearted, depressed, or gloomy, are often associated with a sense of hopelessness.
- Fear and Worry: Examples include feeling anxious, alarmed, or terrified. Fear can even manifest physically, causing you to feel jittery or on edge.
- Anger and Irritation: From feeling aggravated or enraged to simply feeling hostile, anger can range from mild annoyance to intense rage.
Neutral or Mixed Emotions
- Confusion and Surprise: Feeling baffled, puzzled, or shocked can result from unexpected events or situations.
Positive Emotions
- Happiness and Gratitude: Emotions like feeling cheerful, grateful, or blessed contribute to your overall well-being.
Exploring specific feeling words
Sometimes, we use the same words over and over to describe how we feel. It can be helpful to explore different words to describe feelings.
Describing sadness
- Depressed: a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Depression can make you feel hopeless and tired, and it can change your appetite or sleep patterns.
- Disappointed: feeling let down when things don’t work out the way you hoped. Disappointment often involves a sense of loss or regret and can lead to discouragement.
Describing fear
- Anxious: a state of worry and unease about the future. Anxiety can cause physical symptoms like restlessness. It can be triggered by specific situations or just be a general feeling.
- Terrified: a very strong feeling of fear and dread. Terror involves a sense of immediate danger and can lead to panic or make you want to avoid whatever is making you feel scared.
Describing anger
- Irritated: a mild feeling of annoyance and frustration, often caused by small things. If you don’t deal with irritation, it can grow into stronger feelings.
- Enraged: intense anger and fury. Enrage can make you lose control and possibly lead to aggressive or destructive behavior.
Describing happiness
- Joyous: a feeling of great happiness and delight. Joy is often tied to good experiences and relationships and can give you more energy and motivation.
- Content: a peaceful feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. Contentment means accepting your current situation and can contribute to overall well-being and resilience.
Why emotional granularity matters
Emotional granularity is all about being able to tell the difference between your feelings and name them accurately. If you have high emotional granularity, you can pick up on small differences in how you feel.
That’s important because it helps you understand your emotional experiences, talk about your feelings with other people, and come up with better ways to cope.
You can work on your emotional awareness by thinking about and naming your feelings regularly and by using a feeling word list to build up your emotional vocabulary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 25 human feelings?
While it’s tough to pin down a definitive list of 25 “core” feelings, a good starting point includes emotions like joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, love, guilt, shame, envy, jealousy, hope, despair, pride, embarrassment, contentment, frustration, disappointment, anxiety, excitement, gratitude, boredom, loneliness, confusion, curiosity, and disgust. Remember, feelings are complex and often overlap.
What are 20 feelings?
Similar to the above, choosing just 20 feelings is a bit arbitrary, but you might consider: happy, sad, mad, scared, peaceful, excited, worried, grateful, ashamed, guilty, lonely, bored, confused, curious, disgusted, proud, hopeful, jealous, envious, and frustrated. This list provides a solid foundation for exploring your emotional landscape.
What are the 34,000 types of emotions?
The idea of 34,000 emotions comes from research where people described subtle emotional nuances. While we don’t have 34,000 distinct words for emotions, our emotional experiences are incredibly varied and complex, leading to this large number representing the potential range of human feeling.
What are the 15 emotional reactions?
Again, there’s no universally agreed-upon list of 15 “emotional reactions,” but you could consider reactions like crying, laughing, yelling, withdrawing, seeking comfort, fidgeting, sweating, increased heart rate, muscle tension, avoiding eye contact, becoming talkative, becoming quiet, seeking isolation, seeking connection, and experiencing changes in appetite. These are just some of the ways our bodies respond to emotions.
The Bottom Line
Feeling words are important because they help us understand our own emotions and communicate them more effectively to others. If you expand your emotional vocabulary, you’ll likely find it easier to express yourself.
Using feeling word lists is a great way to learn more about yourself. As you learn more words, you’ll be able to describe your feelings with more precision.
Ultimately, emotional awareness is a powerful skill that promotes better mental and emotional health.