All words (A–Z)

Every one of the 265 feeling-words in the dictionary — English plus untranslatable emotion words from 60 languages. Tap any word for its sourced definition, or open the interactive app.

• Abbiocco — The sudden drowsy, sleepy sluggishness that comes over you after a big meal
• Abhimaan — A tender, loving wounded pride
• Abhorrence — The strongest, most morally charged disgust
• Acedia — A state of listlessness, spiritual torpor, and restless indifference
• Admiration — Warm respect and approval
• Adoration — Worshipful love and deep reverence
• Affection — Gentle, warm, settled fondness and caring
• Agape — Selfless, self-giving love directed at the good of another without requiring reciprocity.
• Alarm — A sudden, sharp jolt of fear on sensing a danger close at hand
• Amae — The wish to depend on and be lovingly indulged by another
• Amazement — Astonishment mixed with bewildered admiration
• Amor fati — “Love of fate” — the attitude of seeing everything that happens, including suffering and loss, as necessary and even good, and actively loving it rather than merely enduring it.
• Anger — A strong sense of displeasure, commonly mixed with hostility
• Angst — A deep, generalized anxiety about existence, freedom, and meaning
• Anguish — Extreme, agonizing suffering of body or mind
• Annoyance — A mild, surface-level displeasure caused by something bothersome, repetitive, or inconvenient
• Anticipation — The keyed-up feeling of looking forward to, or bracing for, what's coming.
• Anxiety — Worried unease, typically about some misfortune one sees coming
• Apatheia — In Stoic thought, a condition in which one is no longer ruled by the passions
• Apathy — The absence or suppression of feeling, motivation, and concern
• Apprehension — Anticipatory fear or unease directed at a specific thing ahead
• Astonishment — Great surprise at something remarkable or seemingly incredible
• Ataraxia — A clear-minded, unshakable calm sustained by the absence of inner turmoil and anxiety
• Attachment — The bond or tie of affection
• Awe — A feeling that blends dread, reverence, and wonder, stirred by something of overwhelming grandeur
• Awumbuk — A heavy, hollow listlessness

• Bewilderment — Confused, perplexed surprise
• Bitterness — A feeling of deep, often enduring anger, hurt, or resentment
• Bliss — Complete, serene happiness

• Calmness — The general absence of agitation or disturbance
• Catharsis — A cleansing or draining-off of pent-up emotion
• Chagrin — Acute vexation or mortified annoyance caused by failure, disappointment, or a blow to one's pride.
• Charmolypi — “Joyful sorrow” or “bright sadness”
• Cheerfulness — Brightness of disposition and outward good humor
• Commuovere — To touch someone to the core
• Compassion — Sympathetic awareness of another's suffering joined to a desire to relieve it
• Compersion — The warm, vicarious gladness some people feel when a partner is happily involved
• Composure — Self-possession and calm control of oneself, especially in a trying situation
• Contempt — The settled judgment that someone or something is beneath respect
• Contentment — A state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction with one's present circumstances.
• Contrition — Heartfelt, humble penitence
• Coup de foudre — Sudden, overwhelming love at first sight
• Courage — The strength of mind or character to take risks, hold on, and stand up to danger, fear, or hardship
• Curiosity — The desire to know, learn, or investigate
• Cwtch — A hug that wraps someone in warmth and security

• Dejection — A sunken, dispirited frame of mind
• Delight — A keen, immediate burst of pleasure in a specific pleasing thing
• Dépaysement — The feeling of being out of one's usual environment
• Desolation — The barren, comfortless grief of total loss and loneliness
• Despair — The complete collapse of hope
• Despondency — A disheartened sinking of spirits
• Devotion — Loyal, dedicated, self-giving commitment to a person, cause, or activity
• Disappointment — The let-down of unmet hopes or expectations
• Disdain — Cool, haughty contempt
• Disgruntled — Settled into a state of sulky dissatisfaction and discontent.
• Disgust — Strong aversion or distaste at something offensive or sickening
• Dismay — Surprise and alarm fused with discouragement
• Distaste — Mild dislike or disinclination
• Dor — A deep, bittersweet longing or yearning for someone or something absent
• Dread — Great fear or apprehension, especially anticipatory fear of something expected to happen.
• Duende — A heightened state of authentic, soulful, often dark emotional power and inspiration in art
• Dukkha — Suffering, unease, or unsatisfactoriness

• Eagerness — Keen, enthusiastic, often impatient desire to do or have something
• Ease — A condition of comfort untroubled by pain, worry, effort, or restriction
• Ecstasy — An overwhelming, self-transcending exaltation
• Elation — A buoyant, exhilarated lifting of the spirits, usually following a success
• Embarrassment — Self-conscious distress at awkward exposure in front of others
• Empathy — Feeling with another
• Ennui — A feeling of listless weariness and dissatisfaction arising from boredom or lack of interest
• Enthusiasm — Keen, lively, outwardly expressed eager interest or excitement for something.
• Envy — Resentful discontent at wanting something another person has
• Equanimity — A steadiness of mind that holds especially under pressure
• Eros — Passionate, intense, predominantly sexual or romantic love and desire.
• Eudaimonia — The fulfillment of a flourishing, well-lived life — deeper than momentary pleasure.
• Euphoria — An intense, often inflated sense of well-being and elation
• Exasperation — The worn-down anger that results when patience is repeatedly tried
• Exhilaration — A lively, invigorating rush of cheerful excitement
• Expectancy — The state of expecting that something will happen

• Fargin — To wholeheartedly and ungrudgingly approve of, or take genuine pleasure in, another person's good fortune
• Fascination — Intense, almost helpless absorption or captivation
• Fear — An unpleasant, often powerful feeling stirred by the expectation or recognition of danger
• Fernweh — A deep, aching longing for far-off places
• Firgun — Genuine, ungrudging delight or pride in another person's success or good fortune
• Flustered — Thrown into a brief, agitated confusion that disrupts one's composure and clarity, often by surprise or social pressure.
• Fondness — Mild, warm liking — and the one affection word that attaches as freely to things and activities as to people.
• Foreboding — A vague, intuitive sense that something bad is coming
• Frazzled — Worn ragged — drained and on-edge from sustained stress, fatigue, or overload.
• Fremdscham — Vicarious, secondhand embarrassment
• Fright — Sudden, startling fear
• Frisson — A sudden brief sensation of excitement or thrill, often accompanied by a physical shiver or shudder.
• Frustration — The displeasure of being thwarted, blocked, or defeated in pursuit of a goal, or of facing an insoluble problem.
• Fury — Rage that is intense, unrestrained, and frequently destructive

• Geborgenheit — The warm feeling of safety, shelter, warmth, and belonging
• Gemütlichkeit — A glow of warmth, sociability, and good spirits
• Ghurba — The condition and ache of estrangement
• Gigil — A feeling so intense it overflows into the body
• Gladness — A strong but quiet and temperate joy, usually arising from a specific cause and showing chiefly in the face.
• Glee — Exultant, barely-containable high spirits
• Gloom — A pervasive low, dark mood or atmosphere
• Gluckschmerz — Displeasure or pain at someone else's good fortune or success
• Gökotta — The practice of rising very early to go outside
• Gönnen — To grant or allow someone something gladly
• Gratitude — Thankful appreciation for a benefit, kindness, or favor received.
• Grief — Keen, piercing distress in the wake of loss
• Guilt — The feeling of deserving blame for a specific act or omission

• Han — A complex emotional cluster commonly translated “resentful sorrow”
• Hangry — Irritable or bad-tempered as a result of hunger.
• Happiness — The broad, default word for the whole family
• Heartbreak — Crushing grief or sorrow
• Heimweh — Homesickness — a deep longing for one's distant home or homeland, or for a loved one there.
• Hiraeth — A deep, grief-tinged longing or homesickness for a home, a Wales, or a past that is lost, distant, or perhaps never fully existed.
• Hope — The desire for a good outcome joined to a belief that it is possible
• Horror — Fear bound together with revulsion and shock
• Hubris — Excessive pride, arrogance, or overconfidence that oversteps proper limits and invites downfall.
• Huffy — Visibly offended and indignant in a touchy, sulky, easily-affronted way.
• Humiliation — The painful sense of being degraded or lowered by others
• Hwabyung — A Korean culture-related syndrome of suppressed, accumulated anger that manifests in bodily symptoms
• Hygge — A cozy quality of warmth, contentment, and convivial intimacy

• Iktsuarpok — Popularly: the anticipatory restlessness that makes you repeatedly go outside to check whether someone is coming.
• Impatience — Restless intolerance of delay or waiting
• Indignation — Righteous anger stirred by something felt to be unjust, base, or shameful
• Infatuation — Intense but shallow, short-lived passion or obsession
• Interest — The broad, mild feeling of attention and engagement drawn to something
• Intrigue — Curiosity piqued by something mysterious or puzzling
• Ire — Strong anger, frequently accompanied by a visible show of feeling
• Irked — Wearily annoyed or made impatient by something persistently bothersome.
• Irritation — A low-grade but sharp, prickling displeasure provoked by something bothersome

• Jealousy — Anxious, resentful fear of losing something you have
• Jeong — A deep, slowly accumulated affection, bondedness, and sense of connectedness between people
• Jouissance — In ordinary French, deep enjoyment or pleasure
• Joy — A vivid, often demonstrative feeling of great happiness or delight, frequently welling up and expressing itself outwardly.
• Jubilation — Triumphant, outward rejoicing

• Karuna — Compassion — the wish for all beings to be free from suffering, and the motivation to act to relieve it.
• Kefi — High spirits, joy, and passionate zest for life
• Kilig — The giddy, exhilarating rush
• Koi no yokan — The premonition, upon first meeting someone, that the two of you will inevitably fall in love
• Koselig — Cozy, warm, and pleasantly intimate
• Kummerspeck — “Grief bacon” — the visible excess weight gained from comfort-eating during emotional or psychological distress.
• Kvell — To feel and openly express pride and joy, especially on behalf of someone else's accomplishments (classically one's children or grandchildren).

• L'appel du vide — A sudden, baffling urge to jump or do something self-destructive, with no intent to act on it.
• Lacrimae rerum — The sense that sorrow and pathos are woven into existence itself.
• Lagom — “Just the right amount”
• Lebensmüde — Weary of life, tired of living
• Limerence — The involuntary state of intense, obsessive infatuation
• Lítost — Milan Kundera's coinage for “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery”
• Loathing — Intense disgust fused with hatred
• Loneliness — The painful sense of low spirits that comes from feeling cut off from companionship or connection
• Longing — A strong, persistent, wistful yearning
• Love — A strong feeling of affection, attachment, or devotion
• Ludus — In the popular “types of love” framework, playful, non-committal, game-playing love.

• Magari — An exclamation of wistful desire
• Mamihlapinatapai — Popularly: a wordless, meaningful look shared by two people, each wishing the other would initiate something both desire but neither wants to begin.
• Mångata — The shimmering, road-like reflection of moonlight on water
• Mania — A word with several distinct senses across history, medicine, everyday speech, and the psychology of love
• Melancholy — A feeling of pensive, often prolonged sadness or gloom, frequently without an identifiable cause.
• Meraki — Doing something with soul, creativity, and love
• Metta — Loving-kindness — benevolent, friendly goodwill and active interest in the welfare and happiness of all beings.
• Miffed — Mildly annoyed and a little hurt, usually over something another person said or did
• Mirth — Gladness expressed in laughter
• Misery — Prolonged, wretched suffering or unhappiness
• Misgiving — A nagging sense of doubt or distrust that something is wrong or unwise
• Mono no aware — The bittersweet, gentle sadness arising from awareness of the impermanence of things
• Mortification — Severe, almost annihilating shame or humiliation
• Mourning — The act and process of sorrowing for a death
• Mudita — Sympathetic, vicarious joy
• Mutterseelenallein — Utterly alone, forsaken

• Naches — The proud, warm, heartfelt joy taken in another's accomplishments
• Natsukashii — The warm, fond gladness that wells up when something
• Nervousness — Mild, agitated apprehension
• Nettled — Sharply but briefly stung into annoyance or pique by something provoking.
• Nonplussed — Traditionally, so surprised or confused that one is at a loss as to how to respond
• Nunchi — The subtle art of sensing and reading others' moods and the unspoken atmosphere of a situation, and responding gracefully

• Optimism — The disposition to expect good outcomes and to read events in the most hopeful light.
• Outrage — A vehement reaction of anger, shock, and moral indignation at something felt to be beyond acceptable limits
• Overwhelmed — Feeling buried or swamped by something

• Panic — Sudden, overwhelming, unreasoning fear that disrupts rational thought and causes frantic activity
• Peace — Freedom from disturbance, conflict, or troubling thoughts
• Peeved — Annoyed and resentful in a fretful, petty way over some small grievance.
• Petulant — Childishly irritable and sulky
• Philautia — Self-love — in two senses: a healthy regard for one's own well-being (a prerequisite for loving others), and an unhealthy, excessive self-obsession akin to vanity or selfishness.
• Philia — Affectionate regard, friendship, and goodwill, usually between equals
• Philotimo — A dense cluster-virtue, literally “love of honor”: an inner, almost instinctive pull to live up to one's dignity and obligations and to do right by family and community.
• Pique — A short, stinging burst of displeasure springing from bruised pride or vanity
• Placidity — Calm, gentle, untroubled evenness
• Pleasure — The agreeable feeling produced when a wish, appetite, or sense is gratified
• Pragma — In the popular framework, enduring, practical, “made-to-last” love built on compatibility and effort.
• Pride — A feeling about one's own worth or achievement

• Querencia — A place where one feels safe, at home, and from which one draws strength

• Rage — Anger so violent it slips its restraints
• Rapture — A joyous exaltation so intense it lifts one out of oneself
• Rattled — Unnerved and shaken, one's composure knocked off-balance by a shock, threat, or disturbing turn.
• Razbliuto — The popular (and false) claim: the sentimental feeling a person has for someone they once loved but no longer do.
• Relief — The welcome easing of distress, anxiety, or pain
• Remorse — Gnawing, anguished self-reproach for a wrong done
• Renao — The lively, bustling, warm festive atmosphere of a crowded, happy scene
• Repose — A state of restful calm
• Repugnance — Strong, principled distaste
• Resentment — A persistent feeling of bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly
• Restlessness — A fidgety, unsettled inability to rest or be still
• Retrouvailles — The joyful experience of reuniting with people from whom one has been separated
• Reverence — Deep, awed respect interwoven with love and devotion, directed toward a person or thing regarded as sacred or of great worth.
• Revulsion — A sudden, violent recoil of disgust

• Sadness — The basic feeling of being unhappy, down, or low.
• Sajiao — To act or speak in a deliberately childish, coy, endearing, or petulant way
• Samvega — A profound shock, dismay, and spiritual urgency arising on truly realizing the impermanence and futility of ordinary life, which spurs one to undertake the path toward liberation.
• Sangfroid — Self-possession and coolness under strain
• Satisfaction — The contented feeling when a need, desire, or expectation has been fulfilled
• Saudade — A melancholic, bittersweet longing for an absent person, place, or time
• Schadenfreude — Pleasure or malicious joy taken in the misfortunes, troubles, or failures of others.
• Schwärmerei — Effusive, often excessive enthusiasm, rapture, or sentimental infatuation
• Scorn — Open, fierce contempt laced with mockery and indignation
• Sehnsucht — An intense, often painful longing or yearning
• Serenity — Clear, untroubled, sustained inner peace
• Shame — A painful, global feeling of being flawed or unworthy as a person
• Shock — A sudden, jolting, usually distressing disturbance of mind at something unexpected.
• Sisu — A grim, enduring grit
• Smugness — Offensive self-satisfaction and complacency
• Sobremesa — The relaxed stretch of time spent lingering at the table after a meal has finished
• Sonder — The sudden awareness that every stranger you pass is the protagonist of a life every bit as detailed and absorbing as your own
• Sorrow — Deep distress or sadness, especially over loss, or a sense of guilt and regret.
• Spite — Mean-spirited ill will or malice
• Storge — Natural, instinctive affection
• Struggimento — An intense, tormenting yearning
• Stupefaction — Surprise so overwhelming it stuns the mind into numb, speechless stupor.
• Sulky — Quietly sullen and silently resentful
• Sullen — Gloomily and silently bad-tempered
• Surprise — The feeling caused by something unexpected
• Suspense — Anxious or excited uncertainty while awaiting an outcome
• Sympathy — Feeling for another

• Tampo — Withdrawing affection, warmth, or cheerfulness
• Tarab — A state of rapturous musical enchantment stirred by music or sung poetry, in which musician and listeners feed one another's emotion until both are caught up in the same charged moment.
• Tartle — That brief stall of recognition
• Tenderness — Gentle, protective, caring warmth
• Terror — Intense, overwhelming fear
• Tęsknota — Longing, yearning, wistful or melancholy desire
• The Sublime — The aesthetic experience of overwhelming greatness, vastness, or power that strikes the mind with grandeur
• Torschlusspanik — “Gate-shut panic” — the dread that one's window is closing, that chances bound to a stage of life will seal over before one has done what one meant to do.
• Toska — A spectrum from profound spiritual anguish without identifiable cause, through a dull ache of the soul and yearning, down to boredom or ennui.
• Tranquility — A state of quiet, peaceful stillness
• Trepidation — A nervous, hesitant apprehension
• Trust — Settled confidence in the character, capability, or honesty of someone or something

• Ubuntu — Humanity understood as fundamentally relational
• Umbrage — Offense or resentment taken at a perceived
• Unease — Vague, low-level discomfort
• Upekkha — Equanimity — even-minded mental stability and non-attachment, unshaken by the “eight worldly winds” (gain/loss, fame/disrepute, praise/blame, pleasure/pain).

• Vanity — Excessive pride in one's appearance or qualities, with a craving for admiration
• Vexation — Irritation mixed with feeling troubled, bothered, or put-upon.
• Viraha — The pain of separation from a beloved
• Vorfreude — The joy of anticipation itself

• Wabi-sabi — A worldview and aesthetic built on embracing transience and imperfection
• Waldeinsamkeit — The contemplative, often pleasant feeling of solitude in the woods
• Warmth — Friendly, kindly, genial feeling
• Weltschmerz — A weary, melancholy ache that settles in when one measures how the world actually is against how one wishes it were
• Wistfulness — A gentle, bittersweet sadness
• Woe — Deep, often inconsolable grief or affliction (archaic/literary)
• Wonder — Reverential admiration and curiosity at something beautiful, marvelous, or inexplicable
• Worry — Mental distress or agitation from dwelling on a specific, usually practical problem
• Wrath — Fierce anger bent on revenge or stern indignation

• Xenia — The ancient Greek concept of sacred hospitality, or “guest-friendship”: a ritualized, reciprocal bond between host and guest, rooted in generosity and gift-exchange and honoring Zeus Xenios, protector of guests.

• Ya’aburnee — A term of endearment expressing the wish to die before a loved one, because life without them would be unbearable
• Yuanfen — The “fateful coincidence” or binding affinity that brings and holds people together
• Yūgen — A deep, mysterious, understated beauty and depth

• Zeal — Intense, fervent, energetic devotion to a cause or pursuit
• Zweisamkeit — The intimate togetherness of a couple

• Żal — A complex grief blending mourning, regret, and longing