The letter H is a pretty interesting letter of the alphabet. It takes on its usual "huh" sound in adjectives such as happy or heroic. When placed beside certain letters, it changes to a softer sound, as in "chew" or "share." In some cases, H is entirely silent, as in honored or honest. Pretty powerful for one little letter, right?
Adjectives That Start with H
adjectives that start with h
So, for adjectives that start with "h," we hope you're ready to discover some new highlights. You'd never guess there were so many but, once you've learned them, you'll never look back. Our list of adjectives that start with "h" will launch you into a whole new stratosphere way beyond such commoners as hot and high.
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50 Adjectives That Start with H
Here follow 50 adjectives, complete with definitions from our dictionary and a list of synonyms courtesy of our thesaurus. We picked all 50 because they're commonly used and relevant to everyday conversation and writing.
Adjective | Definition | Synonym |
something overused or trite | cliche, meme, overdone, stale | |
peaceful or restful, especially of weather | calm, idyllic, soothing, soporific | |
considered holy or sacred | blessed, consecrated, sacrosanct, sanctified | |
taking an active role, being involved in a situation | active, involved, proactive, tangible | |
capable or skilled at a given task | able, dextrous, skillful, useful | |
in high spirits; satisfied | cheerful, delighted, glad, pleased | |
something firm in texture; by extension, demanding or unforgiving | arduous, laborious, onerous, rigid | |
something that does damage or injury | adverse, hazardous, hurtful, pernicious | |
caustic or unpleasant to experience | acrimonious, coarse, disagreeable, severe | |
creating a dangerous or undesirable circumstance | dicey, perilous, risky, unsafe | |
having good health; possessing wellness | hale, hearty, sound, trim | |
having to do with paradise; by extension, something pleasant or joyful | celestial, divine, lovely, sublime | |
of great weight; by extension, difficult or depressed | arduous, cumbersome, ponderous, weighty | |
occurring every seven days | heptad, septad, septal, weekly | |
(obsolete) schizophrenic or having schizophrenic symptoms | delusional, hallucinatory, mad, insane, | |
the state of being dull | dozy, dreamy, lethargic, sleepy | |
characterized by pleasure-seeking, being self- indulgent | epicurean, sybaritic, voluptuary, voluptuous | |
wielding power, in charge | controlling, despotic, dominant, ruling | |
something frightening or disturbing | cruel, dreadful, terrifying, warped | |
something beneficial, characterized by improving a situation | advantageous, constructive, supportive, useful | |
having to do with herbs, leafy plants with various culinary and medicinal applications | herbaceous, grassy, verdant, vegetal | |
outside normal behavior | abnormal, eccentric, peculiar, unusual | |
of answering questions, to use both empirical and non-empirical methods | interrogative, intuitive, investigative, speculative | |
raised vertically | elevated, lofty, soaring, towering | |
having good characteristics, desirable | excellent, impressive, valuable, valued | |
characterized by being funny, causing laughter | comical, humorous, jocular, ludicrous | |
resembling a goat | caprine | |
momentous, having to do with an important moment in history | meaningful, powerful, relevant, significant | |
something of significance that actually happened | actual, ancient, chronicled, past | |
something theatrical or overdramatic | dramatic, melodramatic, pantomime, stagy | |
having to do with the whole system, rather than any one part | aggregate, comprehensive, entire, integrated | |
something considered sacred by one or more religions | blessed, hallowed, revered, sacrosanct | |
displaced, without a home | drifting, indigent, mendicant, needy | |
made at home, not purchased | handcrafted, handmade, homegrown, homespun | |
of or relating to only one color | monochrome, monocolor | |
speaking truthfully, being sincere | candid, forthright, frank, genuine | |
extending from side to side rather than up and down | decumbent, endwise, flat, recumbent | |
evoking horror or disgust | abhorrent, harrowing, loathsome, vile | |
causing horror, disturbing | chilling, dreadful, frightening, terrifying | |
relating to speech that encourages action | declamatory, encouraging, exhorting, urging | |
something violently opposed to something else | antagonistic, averse, inimical, truculent | |
high in temperature, aroused in emotion | ardent, fiery, heated, warm | |
extremely large | colossal, enormous, giant, humongous | |
of or relating to a person or people | anthropic, anthropogenic, anthropomorphic, anthropomorphous | |
not arrogant or overconfident, meek | lowly, respectful, self-effacing, unassuming | |
desiring food | craving, famished, starving, unfed | |
composite or mixture of two or more things | blend, cross, crossbred, mixture | |
overstated, presented in an excessively dramatic manner | enthusiastic, excessive, hammy, overdramatic | |
greater than the speed of sound by five or more times | ||
inducing sleep or lowering mental awareness | anodyne, lenitive, mesmeric, somnolent |
What Is an Adjective?
Adjectives are words that modify nouns. They are one of two kinds of modifiers in English: adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, while adjectives only modify nouns. Adjectives can modify any noun, as long as it meets the "noun" definition of representing a person, place, thing or idea.
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Types of Adjectives
All adjectives modify nouns. Adjectives can be further defined into three categories, depending on the way in which they modify their subject.
- Demonstrative adjectives are some of the most important and widely used words in English. The answer the grammatical question "which one?" as applied to a noun. When you put words like "that" or "those" into a phrase, such as "that person" or "those cauliflowers," you are using a demonstrative adjective to answer that question.
- Descriptive adjectives are the most common type of adjective. They define the specific qualities of the noun they modify. In the phrase "the herbal tea," the word "herbal" is a descriptive adjective for the type of "tea."
- Quantitative adjectives are another category with only a few members but a whole lot of importance. Quantitative adjectives answer the question "how many?" By applying words like "some," "most" or "all" to nouns, as in "some voters," "most squirrels" or "all my friends" you define the amount, or quantity, of the noun is being described.
10 Example Sentences
Here we've presented 10 sentences that use our adjectives in a common setting. For more help with sentence structure, check out our sentence variety examples and articles on compound and declarative sentences.
- Debbie took on some harsh new workouts to improve her conditioning.
- On her run home, Debbie she stopped for some herbal tea and a scone.
- Debbie got through her work week and settled in for her hebdomadal cheat day.
- She enjoyed her day off dieting, enjoying homemade brownies and some wine.
- Starting from that natural high, she felt mentally and physically healthy going into the next week.
- Monday arrived with its usual troubles, including a frustrating conversation with a hostile customer.
- She went home happy, however, thanks to some hilarious jokes from a coworker.
- She limbered up with some horizontal stretches before going on her evening run.
- The rhythm of the air conditioner was almost hypnotic as she returned home.
- Settling into bed, Debbie drifted into a halcyon night's sleep.
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H Is Handy to Have
The letter H provides a fascinating study, given its ability to affect other letters of the alphabet, stand strongly alone, or be totally silent. Whenever it's the first letter of a word, it's almost always going to take on its classic sound (save for a few silences). Are you ready to get even more interesting? Let's move on to Adjectives That Start with I. Will your impeccable memory lead to an even more incredible vocabulary?