Serpentine, shapeless, shapely, small-waisted, spherical, spidery, square, thick-waisted, top-heavy, triangular, wasp-waisted Could you include it as a body shape? A woman might have a chest flatter than your thesaurus, or perhaps your male protagonist resembles your upside-down wastebasket.īarrel-chested, barrelesque, blocky, boobylicious, bootylicious, broad-shouldered, bulbous, cylindrical, ectomorphic, endomorphic, flat, hourglass-shaped, inverted-triangular, limp, mesomorphic, pear-shaped, pumpkinesque, pyramidal, rectangular, rotund, round
Scalded, sickly, starved, underfed, undernourished, vulnerable, wasted, weak, weedy, withered, worn-out Gaunt, haggard, half-starved, infirm, insubstantial, lethargic, maimed, malnourished, mangled, neglected, out-of-shape, puny, ramshackle, rickety, ropy, rotting, runty Note: in Great Britain, ropy indicates poor quality or health, whereas in North America, it’s more likely to mean strong or fibrous.Īiling, anorexic, atrophied, battered, beat-up, brittle, broken, bruised, burnt, cadaverous, careworn, crippled, crooked, crumbling, decomposed, decrepit, deformed, degenerating, deteriorating, dilapidated, emaciated, etiolated, feeble, feverish, flimsy, fragile, frail, frangible Shipshape, shredded, sinewy, solid, sound, stalwart, strapping, strong, sturdy, substantial, supple, taut, toned, tough, vigorous, well-built Meaty, mesomorphic, mighty, muscle-bound, muscular, nimble, pliant, powerful, powerfully built, resilient, ripped, robust, rugged Muscle-bound, for example, might indicate that your character has overworked his or her muscles into a state of inflexibility.Īctive, athletic, beefy, brawny, built, bullish, bullnecked, burly, defined, dense, developed, durable, firm, fit, hale, hard, hardy, healthy, Herculean, hulking, hunky, husky, in shape, limber, lusty Scraggy, scrawny, sinuous, skeletal, skin-and-bone, skinny, sleek, slender, slight, slightly-built, slim, small-boned, spare, spindly, spiny, streamlined, stringy, svelte, sylphlike, thin, trim, underdeveloped, underweight, waif-like, willowy, wiry, wispy For example: beanstalk and lanky.Īerodynamic, angular, beanstalk, bony, delicate, fine-boned, gangly, lank, lanky, lean, lissome, lithe, meager of body, narrow, rawboned Several of the adjectives in this section could also appear in the Height: Tall area. Sloppy, squat, stocky, stout, sumoesque, swollen, thick, thickset, tubby, ungainly, unwieldly, weighty, well-fed, well-padded, well-rounded, wide Generously padded, generously proportioned, gross, heavily built, heavy, heavy-set, hefty, Humpty Dumptyish, large, large-boned, matronly, obese, overheavy, overweight, paunchy, plump, podgy, ponderous, porky, portly, potbellied, pudgy, puffy, roly-poly Many of these terms are pejorative and may alienate readers if not used wisely.įor example, a school bully might describe his latest victim as porky, but a husband should keep such opinions to himself, unless those opinions appear via internal monologue - an excellent way for a writer to reveal a character’s true sentiments.Īmple, baggy, baggy-figured, beer-bellied, big-bellied, big-boned, bloated, blubbery, broad, bulging, bulky, chubby, chunky, corpulent, cumbersome, curvaceous, dimpled, doughy, dumpy, elephantine, fat, fatso, flabby, fleshy, full-figured It is definitesolutely permitted to create new words, even (oh, the blasphemy!) adverbs. You may notice a few unfamiliar descriptors in the mini lists that follow. Well-chosen words create vivid imagery without slowing action or boring readers. This post provides ways to describe bodies and physiques. The writer’s duty when describing characters is to compromise between the desire to depict every wrinkle, and the need to keep readers engaged. Romance, science fiction, or fantasy usually requires more description than a whodunit. Overdescription buries him or her in details and images.” Stephen King’s advice: “Thin description leaves the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted. Some authors fill multiple paragraphs when describing each character. (Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon.)
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