AP English III/ 2017/Frost, Spence, & Williams
TONE WORDS #3
Macabre: gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.
Melancholy: a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; depression; sober thoughtfulness; pensive.
Miffed: a petulant, bad-tempered mood; huffy.
Mortified: shamed, humiliated; possessing wounded pride.
Nostalgic: longing for things, persons, or situations of the past, especially in a bittersweet way.
Obfuscatory: confusing and bewildering, often intentionally.
Obsequious: characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning; compliant or deferential.
Ominous: portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious.
Opprobrious: Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive.
Parochial: very limited or narrow in scope or outlook; provincial.
Pedantic: narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned; overly concerned with book learning and formal rules.
Pejorative: having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force.
Perturbed: showing uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty; a state of agitated confusion marked by worry and anxiety.
Pessimistic: marked by a tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view:
Poignant: painfully affecting the feelings; piercing; profoundly moving; touching.
Polemical: controversial and argumentative.
Prosaic: commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative; straight-forward.
Prudent: Wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense.
Rarefied: extremely high or elevated; lofty; of, belonging to, or appealing to an exclusive group.
Restive: Uneasily impatient under restriction, opposition, criticism, or delay; resistant to control; stubborn.
Sardonic: disdainfully or skeptically humorous : derisively mocking.
Sententious: given to excessive moralizing; self-righteous; abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims; Terse and energetic in expression.
Sober: marked by seriousness, gravity, solemnity, etc., as of demeanor, speech.
Strident: characterized by harsh, insistent, and discordant sound; commanding attention by a loud or obtrusive quality.
Stupefied: affected with sudden and great wonder or surprise; struck dumb with astonishment.
Whimsical: given to whimsy or fanciful notions; capricious; playful in an odd and light-hearted way.
Wistful: Full of wishful yearning or longing, often tinged with sadness or melancholy; pensive.
Wry: Dryly humorous, often with a touch of irony.
Zany: ludicrously or whimsically comical; clownish.
Zealous: marked by fervent partisanship for a person, a cause, or an ideal; ardently active, devoted, or diligent
*Words removed from master list: Mordant, Mundane, Pedestrian, Peeved, Pensive, Platitudinous, Sarcastic, Sycophantic, Vitriolic, Vituperative.