WORDS THAT DESCRIBE LANGUAGE: The Fabulous Forty

  1. abstruse: difficult to understand
  2. artificial: a language invented for a specific purpose and based on a set of prescribed rules; not genuine or natural
  3. bombastic: speech or writing marked by an extravagance or affectation of style that the content does not warrant; grandiloquent or pompous
  4. colloquial: characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal
  5. concrete: of or relating to an actual, specific thing or instance; particular
  6. connotative: suggest or imply in addition to a literal meaning; words with suggested or associated meanings
  7. cultured: educated, polished, and refined
  8. detached: marked by an absence of emotional involvement, and an impersonal objectivity
  9. diatribe: a bitter, abusive denunciation
  10. eloquence: a form of persuasion involving word choices based on moving an audience
  11. emotional: a strong feeling that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort
  12. esoteric: intended for or understood by only a particular group, restricted number of people
  13. euphemistic: substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive
  14. exact: strictly and completely in accord with fact; not deviating from truth or reality
  15. figurative: based on or making use of figures of speech; metaphorical
  16. grotesque: characterized by ludicrous or incongruous distortion as of appearance or manner
  17. homespun: simple and homely; unpretentious
  18. idiomatic: peculiar to or characteristic of a given language or a particular group of people
  19. incongruous: lacking in harmony; incompatible and inconsistent
  20. insipid: lacking flavor or zest; dull
  21. jargon: a hybrid language or dialogue; a pidgin (nonsensical, incoherent, or meaningless language)
  22. learned: demonstrating profound, often systematic knowledge; erudite
  23. literal: conforming to the exact or primary meaning of a word or words; factual
  24. moralistic: characterized by displaying the quality of being in accord with standards of right and good conduct
  25. obscure: not readily noticed or seen; ambiguous or vague
  26. pedantic: characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules
  27. picturesque: strikingly expressive or vivid
  28. plain: not elaborate or complicated; simple; unaffected and unpretentious
  29. poetic: having a quality or style characteristic of poetry
  30. precise: clearly expressed or delineated
  31. pretentious: marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious
  32. provincial: not fashionable or sophisticated; limited in perspective
  33. schmaltzy: of or marked by excessive or maudlin sentimentality
  34. scholarly: characteristic of knowledge resulting from study of research (in a particular field)
  35. sensuous: appealing to a gratifying of the senses (aesthetics)
  36. simple: not involved or complicated
  37. slang: a kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech; made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are used deliberately in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence or other affect; (language peculiar to a group)
  38. symbolic: expressed by the representations of something else by association, resemblance, or convention
  39. trite: lacking power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition; hackneyed
  40. vulgar: deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement; crudely indecent