50 Awesome Holiday Words to Know This December

The holidays are upon us, and these winter celebrations with their many traditions each have a rich and varied vocabulary.

From Krampus to kinara, latke to plum pudding, frankincense to yule—there’s a whole host of fantastic holiday words to explore.

So broaden your lexicon and enter the holiday spirit with these fifty awesome holiday words!

1. Advent:

A Latin word meaning “coming;” the Christian season of expectant waiting and preparation beginning four Sundays before Christmas.

2. Bauble:

A small, decorative sphere hung from a Christmas tree.

3. Boxing Day:

A British holiday celebrated the day after Christmas; traditionally when servants and tradespeople were given a “Christmas Box” by employers.

4. Carol:

A festive song or hymn sung at Christmas.

5. Christmas:

A religious and cultural festival celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth that is typically observed on December 25th.

6. Chimney:

A hollow structure allowing smoke from an indoor fireplace to vent outside; also Santa Claus’s magical entryway into homes.

7. Dreidel:

A four-sided top used by children to play a gambling game during Hanukkah.

8. Druid:

A highly-educated priest or professional in the ancient Celtic cultures of Britain and Gaul.

9. Eggnog:

An alcoholic drink made with cream, sugar, eggs, and distilled spirits.

10. Elves:

Magical, pointy-eared creatures who build toys for well-behaved children.

11. Epiphany:

A Christian feast day celebrated on January 6th, commemorating the Magi’s visit to the baby Jesus.

12. Father Christmas:

The English personification of Christmas, now synonymous with Santa Claus.

13. Feliz Navidad:

A Spanish phrase meaning “Happy Christmas.”

14. Frankincense:

An incense symbolizing holiness.

15. Gingerbread:

A cookie made with molasses and ginger.

16. Grinch:

A grouchy spoilsport who doesn’t enjoy Christmas.

17. Hanukkah:

The eight-day “festival of lights” commemorating the rededication of the Jewish temple around 200 B.C. The holiday is celebrated by lighting candles, eating fried foods, playing games, and giving gifts.

18. Holly:

An evergreen bush with red berries and prickly leaves used as winter holiday decoration in pagan and Christian traditions.

19. Immanuel:

A Hebrew name meaning “God with us.”

20. Jolly:

Cheerful and good-humored.

21. Kinara:

A candle holder for the seven candles lit during Kwanzaa.

22. Krampus:

A half-goat half-demon character of European folklore who punishes misbehaving children during Christmas.

23. Kwanzaa:

A seven-day festival celebrating African American cultural heritage, created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966. Festivities include candle lighting, singing, storytelling, poetry reading, and feasting.

24. Lapland:

A region in Finland rumored to be where Santa Claus lives.

25. Latkes:

Pancakes made of grated potato, fried in oil, and served during Hanukkah.

26. Magi:

The Zoroastrian priests of ancient Persia. According to tradition, three of these “wise men” visited the infant Jesus.

27. Manger:

An open box or trough holding food for livestock.

28. Mele Kalikimaka:

A phonetic translation of “Merry Christmas” into the Hawaiian language.

29. Menorah:

A nine-branched candelabrum used during Hanukkah.

30. Miracle:

An extraordinary and welcome event, unexplainable by scientific laws.

31. Mistletoe:

A parasitic plant with white berries, hung from doorways as a Christmas decoration. People are expected to kiss when standing beneath it.

32. Mittens:

Gloves with one opening for the thumb and another for the four fingers.

33. Myrrh:

A fragrant oil symbolizing suffering and mortality.

34. Nativity:

The place and conditions of a birth; commonly used to refer to the birth of Jesus.

35. Naughty:

Badly-behaved. “Naughty” children traditionally received coal from Santa Claus instead of presents.

36. Noel:

“The Christmas season”; derived from Old French.

37. North Pole:

Believed by many Westerners to be Santa Claus’s home.

38. Nutcracker:

A device used to crack open the shells of nuts.

39. Plum Pudding:

A steamed Christmas cake resembling a cannonball, filled with dried fruit.

40. Poinsettia:

A Mexican shrub first used as a Christmas decoration by Franciscan friars in the 17th century.

41. Santa Claus:

A mythical, white-bearded man clad in red who delivers presents to well-behaved children on Christmas Eve; based on legends of the historic Saint Nicholas’s generosity.

42. Sleigh:

A sled typically pulled by horses or reindeer.

43. Stocking:

A long sock, traditionally filled with small Christmas gifts.

44. Tidings:

Breaking news.

45. Tinsel:

Slender strips of shiny metallic foil used as Christmas decorations.

46. Toboggan:

A long, wooden sled used to coast down snow-covered hills.

47. Wassail:

A hot, spiced cider drink, traditionally served to poor carolers by their wealthy neighbors.

48. Winter Solstice:

The first day of winter and shortest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere).

49. Wreath:

A circular arrangement of greenery or flowers.

50. Yule:

A pagan festival celebrating rebirth and renewal, held on the winter solstice.

Are Emojis Language?

Whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit, emojis have taken over. Following the latest update by the Unicode Consortium, the body that dictates language on digital devices, there are now 1,085 officially-recognized emojis in circulation. Five years after their introduction in the United States, emojis have started to dominate messaging and social media apps. Swyft estimates that 6 billion of the emotion pictures are sent in messaging apps every day, and Instagram reports that over half of all Instagram posts include at least one emoji.

We can all agree they’re popular, but here’s a different question: do emojis count as language, modern hieroglyphics, or some other form of pictorial communication?

What Makes a Language?

It can be difficult to decide when a new mode of communication is a “language” rather than a dialect within a larger linguistic landscape. Often, things considered by some as discreet languages are in fact creoles or dialects that do not differ enough to branch completely from parent languages. However, as with many aspects of culture, new innovations emerge, and occasionally these are distinguished as entirely new languages.

According to Johanna Nichols, former professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, the gold standard for distinguishing languages is “mutual intelligibility.” In other words, if a speaker of one language and a speaker of another try to converse, will they understand one another? If the answer is “yes,” the second speaker is using some sort of dialect. If the answer is “no”, that person has created or adopted a new language.

However, the mutual intelligibility concept doesn’t always provide a clear picture of how languages relate to each other, since some dialects seem more different from each other than certain groups of languages do. For example, Americans might have trouble understanding Southeast Asian pidgin English speakers, but Spanish speakers might catch the gist of something said in Portuguese. Also, this does not help us to determine whether an entirely new communicative system is, in fact a language. Are emojis merely images that might be interpreted differently by different groups of people? Or are they universal?

If you’re interested in learning more about how languages become officially recognized, check out this list of books on the evolution of English.

Communicative System vs. Hieroglyphics vs. Language

Before we get to emojis as language proper, let’s debunk one misconception—emojis are not hieroglyphics. Although they may represent a shift back toward more representative characters, they function very differently from hieroglyphics. As prominent Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch pointed out in a recent SXSW presentation on the subject, language has moved from more concrete characters to less concrete versions, allowing humans to communicate abstract concepts.

Unfortunately, most signs point to emojis lacking the characteristics of a true language. For example, when given a string of emojis, two people will not always interpret them the same way. Additionally, emojis cannot be conjugated or combined in ways that function like a true linguistic system, meaning that, although they are a helpful bunch of symbols, they aren’t “a particular, conventionalized system for representing abstract meaning, like English or Japanese or ASL.”

One thing is for certain: emojis are a communicative system. They allow people to communicate emotions, actions, or impressions that they don’t feel they can express in text. The Oxford English Dictionary supports this analysis of emojis, and cites it as the reason they made the “tears of joy” emoji their Word of the Year in 2015.

The Verdict? It’s Complicated

If you adhere to the strictest definition of language, emojis definitely do not make the cut. However, if you define a language as “a system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other,” emojis have a chance. Whether or not they can replace English or any other formal language, emojis have evolved into a meaningful communicative system, allowing users worldwide to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas in new visual ways.

It may be some time before a major linguistic authority like Merriam-Webster or the OED comes to a definitive verdict about emojis as a distinct language. In the meantime, it’s interesting to track patterns in our usage of emojis. Are we using them instead of words? To replace phrases? As simple visual aids to our written texts?

Whether or not emojis are a language in their own right, they represent an interesting and deeply entertaining evolution of language worldwide. And that’s not a bad thing. ?

How to Write an Outline: 4 Ways to Organize Your Thoughts

When I was a novice writer, I chafed at the idea of using an outline. I was certain organizing my thoughts in advance would stifle my creativity and make my writing stiff and uninspired. After all, how can serendipity happen if you’ve got everything planned?

But then I started creating content for a living, and I needed to turn out several polished articles every week. I write at least 240,000 words per year to earn my keep. That’s only about half of War and Peace, but it still feels like a lot. I try to write quickly so I’m not still awake toiling away at the keyboard at 1 a.m. with a cup of tea and a couple of graham crackers. (1 a.m. graham cracker calories do seem to count, by the way.)

I discovered that it was taking me a long time to finish my articles because, when my creative mind was unfettered, I had a tendency to ramble in a chaotic stream of consciousness that I would then have to go back and structure in order for it to make sense. Not only that, but I would over-research. I’d wind up with a thousand words before I realized I was only one third of the way through my article. I’d have to go back, refocus, trim down, and sometimes even start over.

And so, I started outlining. And it saved me. Not only from sleep deprivation, but from graham-cracker weight gain. Here’s my step-by-step process. And it works!

1 Do some reconnaissance reading.

Unless I know my topic inside and out, I start with a little reconnaissance reading. I head to Google and look at what others have written on my topic. I try to think of new and interesting ways to address it. I look for an angle.

The easiest way to find an angle is to look for knowledge gaps in the articles you scan. Let’s use this article as an example. I searched to see what others had written on the topic of how to write an outline. I found a lot on the basics of structure, but not much about how to actually use outlines to improve the organization of your writing. Voila! An angle!

As you’re reading, take notes when you see interesting research or quotes you might want to share. Note the URLs, too, so you can reference them with links in your article. I keep my notes in a Google Doc on the same page where I’m eventually going to create my outline and write my article. Having all the information in one place will allow you to write faster when the time comes.

Here’s a tip: Don’t go too far down the research rabbit hole! Remember, you’re just doing a little reconnaissance reading. It’s easy to over-research, which wastes valuable writing time. Plan to write first, and then add research later.

2 Write down your objective.

Now that you’ve figured out an angle, it’s helpful to write down an objective. What do you want the reader to understand by the end of this article? Put some thought into your objective and see if you can write it in one sentence. My objective for this article was:

At the end of this article, readers will understand why outlines are useful and how to use them to organize their writing.

Everything you write should support your objective. An objective will help you stay focused and prevent you from drifting off on tangents.

Here’s a tip: Academic papers often include a thesis statement. A thesis states a premise or theory that your paper will go on to prove. It’s different from an objective. If you need more specific help with writing a thesis statement, try checking with any university writing center.

3 Create a list of all the main points you want to make.

I often begin this step while I’m doing my recon reading and ideas are popping into my head. This can be a quick brainstorming process. Don’t invest a lot of energy in organizing just yet. You’ll get to that in the next step.

4 Organize, revise, and eliminate.

Now it’s time to organize the list of points. Figure out the structure of your article. Will it work well as numbered how-to steps? A listicle? In standard essay format?

Take a look at the points you’ve jotted down and begin putting them into a logical order. Cross-check each point to make certain that it’s relevant to your objective. If you’ve strayed off the path and included extra information that doesn’t really fit the scope of your article, eliminate it.

Here’s a tip: Save things that don’t make it into your article—information that was extraneous to the article you’re working on now but may be interesting enough to pursue in a separate article some other time. I keep an idea file that I store as a Google Doc. Reference your file when you need a little article inspiration.

You may come across a few things that don’t quite fit into your article as their own sections, but seem important to mention nonetheless. Those elements make great sidebars. In this article, you’ll see them used as tips. Pretty nifty, huh?

As you revise, start putting your outline into a standard format. You don’t have to be too formal about this process, just organize everything into a bulleted or numbered list. (If you want to be traditional, use Roman numerals. I think they make my outlines look fancy.) Include topic segments. Under each topic segment, indent and include the points you’ll discuss in each paragraph. You don’t have to get too granular here—all you’re looking for is enough information to help you remember where you’re going and keep you organized and on track. My outline for this article looked like this:

I. Intro

A. I didn’t used to outline

B. Becoming a professional writer made me change my tune

C. Outlining brings structure to chaos

II. Do some recon reading

A. Look for angle, ways the topic has not been covered

1. Look for knowledge gaps

B. Take notes while you’re reading/record URLs

C. Don’t go too far down the research rabbit hole

III. Make a quick list of the points you want to make

IV. Organize the list into a formal outline

A. Get rid of anything that doesn’t support objective

1. Save extra stuff in a clip file for future use

B. Some extra stuff is worth keeping as tips/sidebars

C. Demonstrate standard outline format

An outline isn’t a prison—it’s there to guide you, not control you. You can take conscious detours, or change things around as you write. Outlines are just guidelines, so they shouldn’t feel restrictive. And yet, you’ll be surprised how the simple act of creating one will give your articles more structure and keep them focused and on-point. You’ll write with more clarity, and you’ll do it all faster and more efficiently. Outlines for the win!

These Simple Tips Will Improve Productivity at All Levels of Your Business

A number of poor practices might be nipping away at your business’s productivity—without you even realizing it.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, poor writing was cited as a major productivity killer. But bad writing isn’t the only thing that can sink your employees’ productivity. Among a bevy of other potential reasons, experts have cited inflexible workplace practices, long hours, sterile office environments, and even emails.

But don’t worry—all these issues can be mitigated with a little knowledge and effort. In this article, I’ll show you how you can boost productivity at all levels of your business by

• Communicating more clearly
• Implementing more productive communication channels
• Allowing for more flexible working times
• Designing a better workspace
• Focusing on productive working hours, not overtime hours

These might sound like abstract, pie-in-the-sky concepts. But you can turn them into concrete realities (and improve your company’s productivity in the process) by adopting the following strategies.

Encourage Clear, Concise Writing

Sometimes it seems like your colleagues are having one big competition to see who can write the most tortuous email possible, right?

If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re definitely not alone. According to a survey of 547 business people, 81 percent of respondents agreed that poorly written material wastes time, with a majority calling much of what they read “too long, poorly organized, unclear, filled with jargon, and imprecise.”

To remedy labyrinthine writing, you should train employees at all levels to write clearly and get straight to the point. Lengthy introductions may work well in college, but in the workplace, brief trumps flowery. Emphasize the importance of short sentences and strong, active-voice language.

Embrace New Communication Technologies

There’s another simple way to minimize the number of convoluted emails passing through your organization:

Eliminate the entire idea of using emails for intra-office communication.

Yes, this might sound crazy. But new communication technologies have introduced more productive venues for communication.

For example, businesses report an average productivity increase of 32 percent after switching to the real-time messaging app Slack. And it’s not just startups and small teams who use Slack. Major organizations like Harvard University, eBay, and Ticketmaster have all adopted the tool. Used judiciously, the platform can boost your productivity with shorter, more immediate communication between team members.

Just be prepared for some growing pains as staffers adjust to these new methods.

Implement Flexible Working Conditions

Nine-to-five: It’s ingrained in our collective consciousness. We arrive at the office at 9 a.m., we leave at 5 p.m., and that’s that.

Or maybe not. An increasing body of research suggests that the tried-and-true nine-to-five might not be the most effective schedule when it comes to productivity. Instead, flextime, where workers are free to telecommute and choose from a range of working hours, is growing in popularity.

There’s evidence to support the benefits of switching to flexible hours. Researchers have found that flexible schedules accounted for up to 10 percent more productivity in the pharmaceutical industry, and similar productivity boosts have also been noticed with computer programmers. And with 77 percent of millennials believing that flextime makes them more productive, flextime is likely the way of the future as workplace demographics shift.

So, if you want to boost your business’s productivity, consider implementing flexible work schedules. As an added bonus, employees are likely to be happier and less stressed, too.

Design a Comfortable and Relaxing Office Space

Have you ever been to a spa that blasted heavy metal music? I’m guessing the answer is no. In fact, that image seems ridiculous because most of us naturally recognize the powerful connection between environment and mood.

It’s no different in the workplace. Bland, minimalist offices can drag down morale and productivity. In the words of some of the psychologists who studied this phenomenon, this type of office is “the most toxic space” for humans to work in.

In a three-country study, those psychologists found that simply adding plants to an office increased employee productivity by up to 15 percent. Other studies suggest that showcasing art or adding more natural light can achieve similar productivity boosts.

Not every office can boast Google’s futuristic egg chairs and room-sized hammocks, but putting effort into improving your office environment (even with something as simple as buying a few plants) will bring real returns for productivity and morale.

Eliminate Overtime Whenever Possible

If people work longer hours, they should get more done, right?

This way of thinking seems logical, but it’s actually not that simple. Despite the fact that four in ten Americans work over fifty hours per week, longer hours don’t always lead to more productivity.

In fact, research suggests that productivity sharply decreases as overtime hours increase. Because of this phenomenon, there’s actually very little difference in productivity between, say, working fifty-five hours per week and working seventy hours per week.

So, if you want more productive, well-rested employees, try to stick to a forty-hour work week whenever possible. The best way to get employees to maintain these hours is for upper management to model them.

As a general rule, happy, valued employees are more productive than employees who feel stressed, exhausted, and unappreciated. That’s why implementing a comfortable, flexible office environment, combined with clear and efficient communication, will allow most businesses to reap real productivity rewards.

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Colin Newcomer is a freelance writer with a background in SEO and affiliate marketing. He helps clients grow their web visibility by writing primarily about digital marketing, WordPress, and B2B topics.

Grammarly Is Now on iOS and Android

Hey Android users! Since launching the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS, we’ve heard from lots of you wondering when the app would be available on Android. Well, first, we want to thank you for your patience. And second, we’re pleased to tell you that today’s the day! The Grammarly Keyboard is now available on both iOS and Android.

Life happens on the go. By 2018, 50 percent of workplace communication and collaboration will happen through mobile apps. But typing on your phone is awkward and imprecise—we’ve all fallen victim to the dreaded textfail at one time or another.

That’s why we built the Grammarly Keyboard, a personal editor that integrates seamlessly with all your mobile apps and your mobile browser. Whether you’re responding to an important client’s email, posting a Facebook message for the world to see, or texting your boss, you’ll always look polished and professional, even on your phone.

Want to know more? Read on. We’ve rounded up the most helpful information about the keyboard and put it all in one place for you.

What does the Grammarly Keyboard do?

Whenever you type with the keyboard, Grammarly will check your writing and make sure your message is clear, effective, and mistake-free. For Grammarly Premium users, the keyboard will also suggest style improvements and vocabulary enhancements. You’ll see the suggestions along the top of the keyboard, and you can accept a change just by tapping it. If you want to know why Grammarly made a particular suggestion, you can open the correction to see an explanation.

You can also specify whether Grammarly should use American or British English rules to check your writing, and you can add words to your personal dictionary to prevent Grammarly from flagging them as misspellings on any device.

Why a mobile keyboard?

As you’ve probably noticed, the world has gone mobile. In fact, Internet usage on mobile devices and tablets is now higher than Internet usage on desktop computers. It’s clear that communicating fast and accurately through your phone is more important than ever, but when that involves composing a message, it’s still slow and inconvenient. We designed the Grammarly Keyboard to be a personal editor that works anywhere you write, no copying or pasting required.

How do I get it?

If you’re on an Android device, head over to the Google Play Store and download the keyboard. If you’re on iOS, download it from the App Store. Next, open the app on your phone and you’ll be guided through the set-up process. Need more detailed instructions? We have you covered for both Android and iOS devices.

Can you see what I write on my phone?

The Grammarly Keyboard needs access to what you write in order to provide corrections and suggestions. We know that what you write on your phone is private, so we have encryption and several other measures in place to make sure it stays that way. Additionally, the keyboard is blocked from accessing anything you type in fields marked sensitive, such as credit card forms and passwords.

Does the keyboard support glide input?

Not yet—we wanted to give our Android users access to the app as soon as it was ready. But we do know that glide input is an essential feature for many Android users, so it’s something we will be tackling in the future. Keep an eye out for updates!

I’m using the keyboard and I want to tell you what I think!

Awesome! We love user feedback—it helps us focus on building features that are valuable to you. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Happy typing!

14 Career Development Books That Will Help You Reach Your Goals

Do you need a hand? These fourteen career development books will show you how you can move your job goals in the right direction.

The Classics

People who get stuff done share at least seven common traits. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, you’ll learn what the seven practices are and how you can acquire them.

Though ruling a nation might not be your career goal, you can glean a lot of wisdom from The Emperor’s Handbook, a translation of Meditations written by Marcus Aurelius, which includes some “unique features for contemporary readers.”

For Women

Sheryl Sandberg, former chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department and author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, has also held prominent positions at hugely successful companies such as Google and Facebook. If you like your advice to contain a combination of hard evidence, humor, and personal anecdotes, this is the career guide for you.

According to the Washington Post, #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso is “Lean In for misfits.” Sophia didn’t start her career with a Harvard education as Sheryl Sandberg did; instead, she worked her way up from petty thief to eBayer to . . . well, read the book and find out!

Every female leader has pearls of wisdom to share with her counterparts. Grace Bonney compiles the best of the best in her book In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs.

For Minorities

If you’re a minority looking to advance, there are some realities you’ll have to face. Good Is Not Enough: And Other Unwritten Rules for Minority Professionals by Keith R. Wyche gives practical advice for dealing with unique challenges in the workplace.

Authors Richard L. Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff examine the personal histories of talented modern forerunners in the world of business in The New CEOs: Women, African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies. What imitable factors lead to their success?

For People with Disabilities

Employment Options: The Ultimate Resource for Job Seekers with Disabilities and other Challenges includes interactive worksheets so readers can assess their strengths and weaknesses. After all, according to author Paula Reuben Viellet, you have to know who you are now before you develop a plan for improvement.

For Recent Graduates

If you’re a new graduate, you probably have lots of dreams, but you may not know how to realize them. In So Good They Can’t Ignore You, professor Cal Newport tells you why you shouldn’t follow your passion . . . and what you should follow instead.

Those who land a job after college may be wondering, “Now what?” Emily Bennington and Skip Lineberg demystify the process of climbing the corporate ladder in Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job.

For Science and Math-Lovers

An algorithm is a set of rules a computer follows to solve a problem or equation. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths explores what your life would be like if used the same rigorous standards for challenges and decisions.

In Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success, athlete-turned-author Shawn Stevenson answers this question: Can sleeping differently affect your career development? Try a fourteen-day sleep makeover before you make up your mind about the link between sleep and success!

For Everyone

Martin Seligman, the author of Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, shares a lifetime of psychological research along with absorbing stories and “flashes of brilliance,” says fellow psychologist and author Sonja Lyubomirsky. If you enjoyed his previous books Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness, you won’t want to miss his new offering.

What were you born to do? You may find out if you read Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. Their findings from studying virtuosos in diverse fields will change everything you think you know about innate skill.

Which book on this list interests you the most? Here’s a goal you can accomplish today: Acquire a copy! The sooner you start reading, the sooner you can use the expert advice to reach your career goals.

Adjectives

What Are Adjectives?

Adjectives are words that describe the qualities or states of being of nouns: enormous, doglike, silly, yellow, fun, fast. They can also describe the quantity of nouns: many, few, millions, eleven.

Adjectives Modify Nouns.

Most students learn that adjectives are words which modify (describe) a noun. Adjectives do not modify verbs or adverbs or other adjectives.

Margot wore a beautiful hat to the pie-eating contest.

Furry dogs may overheat in the summertime.

My cake should have sixteen candles.

The scariest villain of all time is Darth Vader.

In the sentences above, the adjectives are easy to spot because they come immediately before the nouns they modify.

But adjectives can do more than just modify nouns. They can also act as a complement to linking verbs or the verb to be. A linking verb is a verb like to feel, to seem, or to taste that describes a state of being or a sensory experience.

That cow sure is happy.

It smells gross in the locker room.

Driving is faster than walking.

The technical term for an adjective used this way is predicate adjective.

Uses of Adjectives

Adjectives tell the reader how much—or how many—of something you’re talking about, which thing you want passed to you, or which kind of something you want.

Please use three white flowers in the arrangement.

Three and white are modifying flowers.

Often, when adjectives are used together, you should separate them with a comma or conjunction. See “Coordinate Adjectives” below for more detail.

I’m looking for a small, good-tempered dog to keep as a pet.

My new dog is small and good-tempered.

 

Degrees of Comparison

Adjectives come in three forms: absolute, comparative, and superlative. Absolute adjectives describe something in its own right.

A cool guy

A messy desk

A mischievous cat

Garrulous squirrels

Comparative adjectives, unsurprisingly, make a comparison between two or more things. For most one-syllable adjectives, the comparative is formed by adding the suffix -er (or just -r if the adjective already ends with an e). For two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, replace -y with -ier. For multi-syllable adjectives, add the word more.

A cooler guy

A messier desk

A more mischievous cat

More garrulous squirrels

Superlative adjectives indicate that something has the highest degree of the quality in question. One-syllable adjectives become superlatives by adding the suffix -est (or just -st for adjectives that already end in e). Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y replace -y with -iest. Multi-syllable adjectives add the word most. When you use an article with a superlative adjective, it will almost always be the definite article (the) rather than a or an. Using a superlative inherently indicates that you are talking about a specific item or items.

The coolest guy

The messiest desk

The most mischievous cat

The most garrulous squirrels

Coordinate Adjectives

Coordinate adjectives should be separated by a comma or the word and. Adjectives are said to be coordinate if they modify the same noun in a sentence.

This is going to be a long, cold winter.

Isobel’s dedicated and tireless efforts made all the difference.

But just the fact that two adjectives appear next to each other doesn’t automatically mean they are coordinate. Sometimes, an adjective and a noun form a single semantic unit, which is then modified by another adjective. In this case, the adjectives are not coordinate and should not be separated by a comma.

My cat, Goober, loves sleeping on this tattered woolen sweater.

No one could open the old silver locket.

In some cases, it’s pretty hard to decide whether two adjectives are coordinate or not. But there are a couple of ways you can test them. Try inserting the word and between the adjectives to see if the phrase still seems natural. In the first sentence, “this tattered and woolen sweater” doesn’t sound right because you really aren’t talking about a sweater that is both tattered and woolen. It’s a woolen sweater that is tattered. Woolen sweater forms a unit of meaning that is modified by tattered.

Another way to test for coordinate adjectives is to try switching the order of the adjectives and seeing if the phrase still works. In the second sentence, you wouldn’t say “No one could open the silver old locket.” You can’t reverse the order of the adjectives because silver locket is a unit that is modified by old.

Adjectives vs. Adverbs

As mentioned above, many of us learned in school that adjectives modify nouns and that adverbs modify verbs. But as we’ve seen, adjectives can also act as complements for linking verbs. This leads to a common type of error: incorrectly substituting an adverb in place of a predicate adjective. An example you’ve probably heard before is:

I feel badly about what happened.

Because “feel” is a verb, it seems to call for an adverb rather than an adjective. But “feel” isn’t just any verb; it’s a linking verb. An adverb would describe how you perform the action of feeling—an adjective describes what you feel. “I feel badly” means that you are bad at feeling things. If you’re trying to read Braille through thick leather gloves, then it might make sense for you to say “I feel badly.” But if you’re trying to say that you are experiencing negative emotions, “I feel bad” is the phrase you want.

It’s easier to see this distinction with a different linking verb. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

Goober smells badly.

Goober smells bad.

“Goober smells badly” means that Goober, the poor thing, has a weak sense of smell. “Goober smells bad” means Goober stinks—poor us.

When Nouns Become Adjectives and Adjectives Become Nouns

One more thing you should know about adjectives is that, sometimes, a word that is normally used as a noun can function as an adjective, depending on its placement. For example:

Never try to pet someone’s guide dog without asking permission first.

Guide is a noun. But in this sentence, it modifies dog. It works the other way, too. Some words that are normally adjectives can function as nouns:

Candice is working on a fundraiser to help the homeless.

In the context of this sentence, homeless is functioning as a noun. It can be hard to wrap your head around this if you think of adjectives and nouns only as particular classes of words. But the terms “adjective” and “noun” aren’t just about a word’s form—they’re also about its function.

Adjective Salad and Adjective Soup

We’ll end with a few words about adjectives and style. It’s one thing to know how to use an adjective; it’s another to know when using one is a good idea. Good writing is precise and concise. Sometimes, you need an adjective to convey exactly what you mean. It’s hard to describe a red sports car without the word “red.” But, often, choosing the right noun eliminates the need to tack on an adjective. Is it a big house, or is it a mansion? A large crowd, or a throng? A mixed-breed dog, or a mutt? A dark night, or just . . . night? Always remember to make every word count in your writing. If you need an adjective, use it. But if it’s not pulling its weight, delete it. Careful editing is the best way to avoid the dreaded (and yecchy) adjective soup.