Intensifying Adjectives

When describing physical objects you can use a wide variety of adjectives such as: large, big, tiny, minuscule, small, etc. However, when describing nouns that are not physical (e.g. joy, anger, wealth) you need to pay careful attention to the choice of intensifying adjectives. This feature provides a guide to the use of the most common intensifying adjectives for non-physical nouns.

Absolute / Complete / Total / Utter

Absolute, complete, total and utter are used to express strong feelings, extreme situations, and other events - especially negative experiences.

absolute agony
complete astonishment
total bliss
(an) utter catastrophe
absolute despair

total ecstasy
utter fury
a complete idiot
utter loathing
total madness

Big

Big tends to describe a happening or a type of person. It is not usually used with uncountable nouns.

Happenings

a big decision
a big disappointment
a big improvement
a big mistake
a big surprise

Types of Persons

a big eater
a big dreamer
a big drinker
a big spender
a big talker

Great

Great usually describes nouns which express feelings or qualities.

great admiration
great anger
in great detail
(a) great disappointment
great enjoyment
great excitement
a great failure
great fun
great happiness
great joy
at great length

a great number (of)
great power
great pride
a great quantity (of)
great sensitivity
great skill
great strength
great understanding
great wealth

Large

Large is often used with nouns concerning numbers and measurements. It is not usually used with uncountable nouns.

a large amount
a large number (of)
a large population

a large proportion
a large quantity
a large scale