Positive Connotations
Overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement
EBULLIENT
Acting in opposition
ANTAGONISTIC
Abrupt in matter; blunt or rough
BRUSQUE
Objective, realistic, unemotionally critical
CLINICAL
"Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans mark him and write his speeches in their books, 'Alas,' it cried 'Give me some trink Titinius' as a sick girl. You gods, it doth amaze me a man of such a feeble temper should so get the start of the majestic world and bear the palm alone."
DERISIVE
The poem was a stunning, ________ exploration of the nature of time.
LYRICAL
The old man's voice was so ________, I gritted my teeth every time he spoke to me.
STRIDENT
Many older politicians speak _________ about the movement organized by the Stoneman Douglas survivors, believing they are too young and too inexperienced to understand how the world works.
PATRONIZINGLY
The journalist posed __________ questions to the candidate for governor; her direct and unyielding interrogation was impressive.
INCISIVE
"O mighty Caesar, dost thou lie so low? Are all they conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils shrunk to this little measure?"
ELEGIAC
Good-humored, playful conversation
BANTERING
GRAVE
Serious, somber; weighty or threatening
My high school math teacher was overly _______ when I came in for help; I needed encouragement, not constant criticism.
CENSORIOUS
He has a _________ view on semester finals, arguing that there isn't any point to studying because he's destined to earn a 2.5 anyway.
FATALISTIC
"It must be by his death. And for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general. He would be crowned: how that might change his nature, there's the question."
MEDITATIVE
BLITHE
Joyous, merry or cheerful - often in spite of circumstances
After listening to her student's long, emotional explanation as to why she was late, the teacher _____ responded with, "And this is my problem, how?"
OBDURATELY
Caesar says to Decius _________: "...tell that that I will not come today. Cannot is false, and that I dare not, falser. I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius."
DOMINEERING
When Portia begs Brutus to "make [her] acquainted with [his] cause of grief," he responds _______, telling her, "I am not well in health, and that is all."
EVASIVELLY
"I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, who else must be let blood, who else is rank. If I myself, there is not hour so fit as Caesar's death hour, nor no instrument of half that worth as those your swords ade rich with the most noble blood of all this world."
LOFTY
Susan gave her teacher a lengthy, ________ excuse as to why she couldn't turn in her essay on time.
FARCICAL
Cassius ______ spits to Casca: "What trash is Rome, what rubbish, and what offal when it serves for the base matter to illuminate so vile a thing as Caesar!"
ACERBICALLY
Caesar adopts an _________ tone when he responds to the pleas to allow Publius Cimber to return from exile when he says he was "constant Cimber should be banished and constant do remain to keep him so."
INSISTENT