List of Emotions: 271 Emotion Words (+ PDF)

What are emotions? What are the theories behind emotions? And how do you describe different emotions? Learn all about emotions here and get lists of emotions for adults or kids.

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Emotions are an important part of the human experience. We feel a variety of different things, and being able to put a label on those feelings is helpful for increasing self-awareness and self-understanding. So how do we gain understanding of our emotions? Well, a list of emotions may help us think through how we experience each one.

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List of Emotions (According to the Discrete Emotion Theory)

There are a few theories of emotion that help organize different emotions and help us understand how they relate to each other. The most well-known of these theories is the discrete (or basic) theory of emotion. This was the theory used in the movie Inside Out. The basic premise is that emotions are separate, discrete things and that they are basic because they originate from having to deal with fundamental life tasks like running away from a predator (Ekman, 1999).

The list of emotions from this theory include:

Enjoyment
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Disgust

Just because these emotions are basic and discrete does not mean they can't vary in intensity. For example, each basic emotion may include a variety of emotional experiences. We'll describe these a bit more below.

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List of Emotions and Definitions

Enjoyment
Enjoyment is thought to be the only basic positive emotion. It may include other positive emotional experiences such as:

pleasure
joy
happiness
amusement
pride
awe
excitement
ecstasy

Sadness
Sadness is a low-activation (low-energy) negative emotion that we often feel in response to things like rejection or loss. A list of sadness related emotions include:

lonely
unhappy
hopeless
gloomy
miserable

Fear
Fear is a high-activation, avoidance-motivated negative emotion that we tend to feel in response to threats. Here's a fear-related emotion list:

worried
nervous
anxious
scared
panicked
stressed

Anger
Like fear, anger is a high-activation negative emotion. But unlike fear, it is an approach-motivated emotion. When we feel anger we want to approach the object of our anger rather than run away from it. Here is a list of anger-related emotions:

annoyed
frustrated
bitter
infuriated
mad
insulted
vengeful

Disgust
Disgust is an avoidance-motivated emotion. There is something that we don't want to be around or experience, and we desire to move away. Here are some disgust-related words:

dislike
revulsion
nauseated
aversion
offended
horrified

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List of Emotions (According to the Circumplex Emotion Theory)

Although the basic theory of emotion makes some sense, others have argued that emotions are not discrete things. They don't have specific locations in the brain, they almost always co-occur with each other, and there are many blends of emotions. Reasons like these led psychologists to develop the Emotion Circumplex Model (Russell, 1980).

This model suggests that emotions can be mapped in a circle. These are two axes: one axis is from high to low energy; the other axis is from high to low pleasure. Early researchers believed any emotion could be mapped on this circle. However, more recent research has suggested that there may be more than two dimensions required to understand and map emotions. For example, one study suggested that mapping emotions on how controllable and useful they are is helpful. Plus, this adds two additional dimensions (Trnka et al., 2016). Basically, the only thing we really know for certain about emotions is that they are complex.

Here is a list of emotions from the Emotion Circumplex Model:

High-energy positive emotions:

excited
delighted
astonished

Low-energy positive emotions:

pleased
content
relaxed
calm

High-energy negative emotions:

angry
afraid
alarmed

Low-energy negative emotions:

depressed
bored
tired

List of Emotions (From Plutnik's Wheel of Emotions)

Another well-known model of emotions is Plutnik's wheel. This wheel suggests that there are primary, secondary, and tertiary emotions. Each of the emotions in the wheel can be combined to create new emotions. Here is a list of emotions from Plutnik's model:

Ecstacy

joy
serenity

Admiration

trust
acceptance

Terror

fear
apprehension

Amazement

surprise
distraction

Grief

sadness
pensiveness

Loathing

disgust
boredom

Rage

anger
annoyance

Vigilance

anticipation
interest

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List of Positive Emotions

Positive emotions are pleasant or desirable states. When we think of positive emotions, we often think of happiness. But positive emotions include so much more than that. They range from high-energy emotions like excitement to low-energy positive emotions like calmness. The extent to which we find these emotional states pleasurable depends on us. Some of us prefer excitement to calmness and some of us prefer the opposite. And some have suggested that there are genetic underpinnings to these preferences (e.g., the COMT gene).

Here is a list of some of the most common positive emotions:

happiness
excitement
calmness
contentment
love
pride
acceptance

List of Negative Emotions

Negative emotions are unpleasant or undesirable states. But, just because they are unpleasurable doesn't mean they are unhelpful. Negative emotions help us do important things in our lives. For example, fear helps us escape from a tiger, anger helps us stand up for our own needs, and sadness helps us take a step back or seek social support. We need negative emotions just as much as we need positive emotions. When it comes to our well-being, we just need to learn how to regulate emotions in effective ways.

Here is a list of some of the most common negative emotions:

anger
sadness
fear
guilt
shame
regret
grief
embarrassment
hatred
jealousy

Complete List of Emotions

There are a variety of other theories and lists of emotions. We've attempted to synthesize them here to give you a complete alphabetical list of emotions. (You can download this as a printable list below.)

acceptance
admiration
adoration
affection
afraid
agitation
agony
aggressive
alarm
alarmed
alienation
amazement
ambivalence
amusement
anger
anguish
annoyed
anticipating
anxious
apathy
apprehension
arrogant
assertive
astonished
attentiveness
attraction
aversion
awe
baffled
bewildered
bitter
bitter sweetness
bliss
bored
brazen
brooding
calm
carefree
careless
caring
charity
cheeky
cheerfulness
claustrophobic
coercive
comfortable
confident
confusion
contempt
content
courage
cowardly
cruelty
curiosity
cynicism
dazed
dejection
delighted
demoralized
depressed
desire
despair
determined
disappointment
disbelief
discombobulated
discomfort
discontentment
disgruntled
disgust
disheartened
dislike
dismay
disoriented
dispirited
displeasure
distraction
distress
disturbed
dominant
doubt
dread
driven
dumbstruck
eagerness
ecstasy
elation
embarrassment
empathy
enchanted
enjoyment
enlightened
ennui
enthusiasm
envy
epiphany
euphoria
exasperated
excitement
expectancy
fascination
fear
flakey
focused
fondness
friendliness
fright
frustration
fury
glee
gloomy
glumness
gratitude
greed
grief
grouchiness
grumpiness
guilt
happiness
hate
hatred
helpless
homesickness
hope
hopelessness
horrified
hospitable
humiliation
humility
hurt
hysteria
idleness
impatient
indifference
indignant
infatuation

infuriated
insecurity
insightful
insulted
interest
intrigued
irritated
isolated
jealousy
joviality
joy
jubilation
kind
lazy
liking
loathing
lonely
longing
loopy
love
lust
mad
melancholy
miserable
miserliness
mixed up
modesty
moody
mortified
mystified
nasty
nauseated
negative
neglect
nervous
nostalgic
numb
obstinate
offended
optimistic
outrage
overwhelmed
panicked
paranoid
passion
patience
pensiveness
perplexed
persevering
pessimism
pity
pleased
pleasure
politeness
positive
possessive
powerless
pride
puzzled
rage
rash
rattled
regret
rejected
relaxed
relieved
reluctant
remorse
resentment
resignation
restlessness
revulsion
ruthless
sadness
satisfaction
scared
schadenfreude
scorn
self-caring
self-compassionate
self-confident
self-conscious
self-critical
self-loathing
self-motivated
self-pity
self-respecting
self-understanding
sentimentality
serenity
shame
shameless
shocked
smug
sorrow
spite
stressed
strong
stubborn
stuck
submissive
suffering
sullenness
surprise
suspense
suspicious
sympathy
tenderness
tension
terror
thankfulness
thrilled
tired
tolerance
torment
triumphant
troubled
trust
uncertainty
undermined
uneasiness
unhappy
unnerved
unsettled
unsure
upset
vengeful
vicious
vigilance
vulnerable
weak
woe
worried
worthy
wrath

Printable List of Emotions

Want to print this emotion list? Grab the list of emotions PDF or word doc below.

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List of Feeling Words & Phrases

In addition to the emotion words above, here are a few more 'feeling' phrases. These included slang and other words that just didn't quite fit into the emotion list above.

'Feeling' words and phrases:

feeling cheesed off
having a desire to disappear
feeling good
having the heebie-jeebies
feeling like a fraud
feeling miffed
going postal
being gaslighted

List of Emotional Words

Although we've talked about a bunch of words that can be used to describe our emotions, all words actually have an emotional tone. One study assessed the emotional tone of hundreds of words (Bradley & Lang, 1999) to see how positive or negative people perceived a variety of words to be. The results showed, for example, that words like 'massacre' were rated to be really negative whereas words like 'mother' were rated as really positive. This study highlighted how we experience every word as emotional, even words that are not explicitly emotional.

List of Emotions for Kids

Our complete list of emotions can all be too much for kids. It's likely better to start with a few emotions and go from there. That's why people try to simplify emotion lists for kids and make it easier to learn about new emotions.

We too have made a few tools that can help kids learn about their emotions. First, our emotional coloring book includes downloadable coloring pages of a cute puppy exhibiting various emotional expressions. We also have emotional puppy cards that can be downloaded and pasted on a fridge or walls for kids to learn from.

These emotion tools include the following 12 emotions:

happy
silly
surprised
excited
scared
sad
angry
disgusted
jealous
bored
guilty
embarrassed

Emotion Faces

An Emotion List for Adults

Here are few more emotion words for adults:

sexy
sensual
racy seductive
provocative
risque
crude

Activities for Learning More About Your Emotions

Learn more about your emotions and how to manage them on our emotional skills page. Discover activities for working on your emotions on our emotion activities page. These pages bring together insights on all sorts of topics related to emotions.

Articles for Learning More About Emotions

Want to learn more about some of these emotions. Here are a few related articles:

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References

Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999). Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction manual and affective ratings (Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 25-36). Technical report C-1, the center for research in psychophysiology, University of Florida.
Ekman, P. (1999). Basic emotions. Handbook of cognition and emotion, 98(45-60), 16.
Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 39(6), 1161.
Trnka, R., Lačev, A., Balcar, K., Kuška, M., & Tavel, P. (2016). Modeling semantic emotion space using a 3D hypercube-projection: an innovative analytical approach for the psychology of emotions. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 522.

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