Personality adjectives are words frequently used to describe the character of people, though they can describe other things as well. Much like other types of adjectives, these are words that are descriptive of a noun, which is a person, place, thing, or idea. There are positive adjectives that are used to describe people in a way that is “good” such as “smart,” “creative,” and “vivacious.” Negative adjectives, however, can also be used, which describe people in a negative or “bad” way and include words like “lazy,” “rude,” and “immoral.”
Proper use of personality adjectives can have a tremendous impact on someone’s résumé or curriculum vitae (CV) used to apply for work, and can also be used in job interviews. Adjectives, in general, are words that are used to describe something else, specifically a noun such as a person, place, thing, or idea. In the sentence, “This is a good book,” the word “good” is an adjective that describes the noun “book.” Personality adjectives function in much the same way, though they specifically refer to words used in a certain context to describe a person. Rather than describing someone’s appearance, however, these words are used to indicate a person’s character or personality.
Positive personality adjectives are those words that can be used to describe a person’s character in a way that is “good” or seen by others in a positive way. A word like “caring” can be used in such a way, since it indicates that a person is sympathetic or cares about other people. There are different types of these adjectives that can be used, and some may be more powerful than others. While both “giving” and “generous” mean roughly the same thing, a word like “generous” is often more powerful, so strong adjectives should be used whenever possible.
There are also negative personality adjectives, which are typically used to describe a person in a way that is “bad” or which portrays them in a negative manner. These types of adjectives can include words like “cruel,” “greedy” and “obnoxious,” which all indicate different aspects of a person’s character. Someone using these types of personality adjectives to describe a person should choose words that are strong and precise, like “abrasive” rather than just “unpleasant.” While some adjectives can be used to describe both a personality and a different type of object, such as “warm,” many words describe features, such as “tall” or “pretty,” rather than someone’s personality.