A Guide for Choosing the Right Adjective to Describe How Good Something Is

Choosing the right adjective can be a challenge. For example, let’s say you want to precisely describe how good you think something is. Sure, you could just say “It’s good”, but what if the thing you’re describing is better than that?

Perhaps it’s “quite good”. Or “really good”. Maybe it’s even “very good”, but is that better than something that’s really good?

What if it’s “awesome”? Is something that’s awesome better than something that’s very good? Not knowing whether it is or not can lead to some really “mediocre” if not “rubbish” attempts to communicate on your part.

Fortunately, YouGov ran a poll back in 2018 to assign a score to the common English words and phrases Americans frequently use to describe how either positive or negative they think something is. The results are graphically depicted in the following chart, which can be used as a tool to precisely dial your description of how good something is by choosing the right adjective to convey what you really think about it:

Now, when you describe something as “decent”, it’s because you mean it’s better than “alright”, but isn’t quite as good as something you think is “fine”. Isn’t that “fantastic”, which you now know is just a tick better than “incredible”?