100 Ways to Say “Good”

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Today I present the next in my Ways to Say series: 100 Ways to Say Good. I covered ways to say bad last time, so I guess this is no big surprise.

What was a surprise is how difficult it was to limit the list to 100. Good is such a broadly-used word, covering so much ground, it has literally hundreds of potential synonyms depending on context and the specific type of “goodness” one wishes to express. Almost any virtue might be replaced with good. A good baseball player, for example, might be swift, adroit, powerful, keen-eyed, intelligent, fearless, and fierce. And by good, one might mean any of those qualities or all of them.

That’s what makes good both a useful word — in its broadness and adaptability — and a poor word — in its bland lack of specificity. All the words below seek to communicate a more particular kind of goodness than good generally denotes.

I therefore broke the list into three general kinds of good. The categories are arbitrary. I could have done it any number of ways and with a great many more categories. I’m happy with these three types of good, however. I hope you find the organization helpful.

Also check out: 100 Ways to Say “Said”/ 250 Ways to Say “Went”/ 100 Ways to Say “Bad”

Notice that I am using good only in its adjectival sense and not as a noun (that would require another list entirely).

As usual, I’ve linked all the words to their dictionary definition. Be careful to know the word well, including its connotations, before using it in writing or formal speech. Not all words work equally well in any situation. Below the list is a graphic version of the list. Feel free to pin it or share it as you like.

I hope you think what I’ve done here is good!

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Enjoy the graphic below. Please share it on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, etc.

 

 

About the Author

Brian WaskoBrian is the founder and president of WriteAtHome.com. One of his passions is to teach young people how to write better.View all posts by Brian Wasko

  1. delmy
    delmy10-10-2016

    Gracias aprendo mas Ingles contigo. Thank I improved my Inglish lenguaje with you

  2. yunus
    yunus03-09-2016

    This was really helpful and nice job.

  3. Bridget Ely
    Bridget Ely08-24-2015

    Hi Brian,

    Was wondering if you did an e-version of your posters that I could print myself (I live in the UK) and if you could edit them so they have English spellings??

    Thanks in advance,
    Bridget

  4. Cathy Simonton
    Cathy Simonton01-29-2014

    Good job! Useful and thought-provoking.

  5. Sandy
    Sandy01-29-2014

    Thank you! Your “100 ways” lists are outstanding!

  6. Merri Larsen
    Merri Larsen01-27-2014

    A must-see for all writers everywhere!

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