Adjectives for Cold: Weather, Things, People and Feelings
The most useful adjectives for cold are chilly, nippy, crisp, freezing, icy, frosty, bitter, biting, raw, frigid and arctic. Choose by strength (chilly is a little cold, bitter is very cold) and by what you are describing: the weather, an object, a person who feels cold, or a person who is cold and unfriendly.
English also uses “cold” for illness (having a cold), for unconsciousness (out cold) and for an old trail or case. Those senses are near the end.
Quick picker
| You want to say… | Try |
|---|---|
| a little cold, pleasant | cool, crisp, fresh, brisk |
| a little cold, unpleasant | chilly, nippy, raw, parky (UK informal) |
| very cold weather | freezing, bitter, biting, frigid, arctic, perishing |
| cold and wet | raw, damp, dank, sleety |
| cold with ice or frost | icy, frosty, frozen, frost-covered |
| cold to touch | ice-cold, stone-cold, chilled, clammy |
| a person who feels cold | chilly, frozen, shivery, numb, chilled to the bone |
| a person who is unfriendly | cold, frosty, icy, aloof, distant, standoffish |
From cool to bitterly cold
| Slightly cold | Cold | Very cold | Extremely cold |
|---|---|---|---|
| cool | cold | freezing | bitterly cold |
| fresh | chilly | icy | frigid |
| crisp | nippy | biting | arctic, polar |
| brisk | raw | bitter | glacial |
Strength words that pair naturally with cold: bitterly cold, freezing cold, icy cold, perishingly cold (UK), bone-chillingly cold. “Very freezing” sounds odd because freezing is already extreme; say absolutely freezing instead.
Cold weather
| Adjective | What it adds | Example |
|---|---|---|
| chilly | cold enough to need a jacket | It’s a bit chilly this evening. |
| nippy | cold in a sharp way (informal) | It’s nippy out; take a scarf. |
| crisp | cold, dry and bright (pleasant) | We walked on a crisp autumn morning. |
| brisk | cold and refreshing, usually wind | A brisk breeze came off the sea. |
| raw | cold and damp, unpleasant | It was a raw February day. |
| biting | cold that seems to sting skin | A biting wind blew across the platform. |
| bitter | very cold, often with wind | The bitter cold kept people indoors. |
| frosty | cold enough for frost | A frosty morning left the lawn white. |
| icy | covered in ice; also very cold air | The roads are icy, so drive slowly. |
| freezing | at or below 0 °C; or very cold (casual) | It’s freezing in here! |
| frigid | extremely cold (often US, news style) | Frigid temperatures hit the Midwest overnight. |
| arctic, polar | extremely cold air from the far north | An arctic blast is expected this weekend. |
| wintry | like winter; with snow or sleet | Wintry showers are likely on high ground. |
For the season, see adjectives for winter; for frozen water, adjectives for ice and adjectives for snow.
Cold things: food, drink and surfaces
| Adjective | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ice-cold | drinks (good), water, hands | An ice-cold lemonade on a hot day. |
| chilled | drinks and food kept cold on purpose | Serve the wine chilled. |
| frosty | a glass with condensation or frost on it | A frosty glass of beer. |
| stone-cold | food or drink that should be hot | By the time I got to it, my tea was stone-cold. |
| lukewarm, tepid | not hot enough (often a complaint) | The bath water was tepid. |
| frozen | turned to ice, or kept in a freezer | A bag of frozen peas. |
| refrigerated | kept in a fridge (formal, labels) | Keep refrigerated after opening. |
| clammy | cold and slightly wet, unpleasantly (skin) | His hands were clammy with nerves. |
Two mix-ups to avoid: frosted glass is glass made cloudy so you cannot see through it, and a frosted cake has icing on it. Neither is about temperature. Pipes that burst in winter are frozen pipes, not freezing ones.
How a person feels when they are cold
- Mild: chilly, a bit cold, cool. “I’m a bit chilly; can we shut the window?”
- Strong: freezing, frozen, frozen stiff, perished (UK), chilled to the bone. “We were frozen stiff after the match.”
- Physical signs: shivering, shivery, numb, goose-pimply, blue with cold, teeth chattering. “Her lips were blue with cold.”
- Medical: hypothermic (dangerously cold body), frostbitten (skin damaged by cold).
Note that shivering describes people and animals, not weather or objects: “a shivering puppy”, not “a shivering wind”. For temperature words in general, see adjectives for temperature.
Cold people and cold behaviour
| Adjective | What it suggests | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cold | without warmth or feeling | Her reply was polite but cold. |
| frosty | unfriendly, showing disapproval | We got a frosty reception from the neighbours. |
| icy | very unfriendly, often angry | She gave him an icy stare. |
| chilly | a little unfriendly | Relations between the two teams are chilly. |
| aloof | keeps a distance, seems superior | He seemed aloof at first, but he’s just shy. |
| distant, reserved | does not share feelings | Since the divorce he’s been distant. |
| standoffish | unfriendly, does not join in (informal) | The new manager can be standoffish. |
| cold-hearted, heartless | cruel, without pity | It was a cold-hearted decision. |
| clinical, detached | without emotion, purely practical | The report was clinical about the losses. |
A frosty or icy silence follows an argument; a chilly atmosphere fills a room where people are not getting on. For warmer words, see adjectives for personality.
Cold places
For whole regions and landscapes: polar, arctic, subarctic, alpine (high mountains), boreal (northern forests), glacial (shaped by glaciers), tundra (a noun, used before nouns: “tundra plants”), frozen, snowbound, ice-bound, windswept, bleak. For rooms and buildings: draughty (US: drafty), unheated, damp, dank, chilly. “The old cottage was draughty and damp.” A dank cellar is cold, wet and smells of damp; an unheated church in January can feel colder than the street outside, because the stone walls hold the cold for weeks.
Other meanings of cold
- Having a cold: the illness. Adjectives: sniffly, snuffly, bunged up (UK) or stuffed up, under the weather, run-down, feverish. “I’m a bit bunged up; it’s just a cold.”
- Out cold: unconscious. “He hit his head and was out cold for a minute.”
- A cold case, a cold trail: an unsolved crime with no new leads; a trail that is too old to follow.
- Cold colours: blues, greys and greens that feel cool. Designers usually say cool tones.
- Cold feet: sudden nervousness before a big step. “She got cold feet the night before the wedding.”
- Stop cold, quit cold turkey: stop suddenly and completely.
Which cold word goes with which noun
| Noun | Natural adjectives |
|---|---|
| wind | biting, bitter, icy, raw, brisk, piercing |
| morning | crisp, frosty, chilly, cold, misty |
| night | freezing, cold, frosty, clear |
| water | ice-cold, freezing, icy, cold |
| air | crisp, fresh, chilly, cold, icy |
| snap, spell | cold (a cold snap, a cold spell = a short period of cold weather) |
| reception, welcome | frosty, cool, chilly, icy |
| stare, look, glare | icy, cold, stony, steely |
| silence | icy, frosty, stony |
Similes and idioms with cold
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| as cold as ice | very cold; or very unfriendly | Her hands were as cold as ice. |
| cold comfort | something meant to help that does not help much | Knowing others failed too was cold comfort. |
| catch your death (of cold) | get very cold and ill (old-fashioned, said as a warning) | Put a coat on or you’ll catch your death. |
| give someone the cold shoulder | ignore them on purpose | After the argument she gave me the cold shoulder. |
| leave someone cold | fail to interest them | Opera just leaves me cold. |
| pour cold water on | discourage an idea | The boss poured cold water on our plan. |
| in cold blood | deliberately and without feeling | The crime was committed in cold blood. |
| break the ice | make people feel relaxed at a first meeting | A silly game helped break the ice. |
| a cold sweat | sweat caused by fear | I woke up in a cold sweat. |
Describing cold in writing
Readers feel cold through the body and through small details, not through a list of adjectives:
- Flat: It was a very cold day.
- Better: It was so cold that our breath hung in the air and the car door stuck to its frame.
- Flat: He was cold to her.
- Better: He answered her questions in single words and never once looked up.
Useful verbs: shiver, shudder, stiffen, numb, nip, sting, bite, freeze, frost over, ice up. Useful nouns: chill, nip, frost, rime, sleet, slush, goosebumps. One precise word such as raw or biting often does more than “very, very cold”.
Mistakes to avoid
- “She felt coldly.” After feel, use the adjective: “She felt cold.” Coldly describes manner: “She looked at him coldly.”
- “The room was freeze.” Use the adjective freezing or frozen, not the verb.
- “An ice wind.” Use icy wind. (Ice works before some nouns as a noun: ice cube, ice storm.)
- “Glacial” for any cold. It works for a very cold wind, but most often it means very slow (“glacial progress”) or unfriendly (“a glacial smile”).
- Repeating yourself. “The winter was wintry” says nothing; “The winter was long and bitter” does.
- Saying cold is never an adverb. It is, in set phrases: out cold, stop cold, turned down cold.
Practice
Choose from: crisp, raw, stone-cold, frosty, numb, aloof, out cold, bitterly.
- My coffee went ______ while I was on the phone.
- It was a ______ October morning, cold but sunny.
- My fingers were ______ after an hour without gloves.
- It’s ______ cold tonight; minus ten with the wind.
- We got a ______ welcome after arriving two hours late.
- He isn’t rude, just a little ______ until he knows you.
- The boxer was knocked ______ in the third round.
- A ______, damp wind blew in from the estuary.
Answers
- stone-cold
- crisp
- numb
- bitterly
- frosty
- aloof
- out cold
- raw
Quick answers
What is a stronger word for cold?
Freezing, bitter, biting, frigid and arctic for weather; ice-cold for drinks and water; frozen or chilled to the bone for how a person feels.
What is a fancy word for cold?
Frigid, gelid (very rare, literary), algid (medical, rare) and hibernal (of winter, formal). Most writers are better served by bitter or raw, which readers know.
Chilly or cold?
Chilly is milder. “It’s chilly” means you want a jumper; “It’s cold” covers everything from that to frost.
Icy or frosty?
Icy means covered in ice (slippery roads); frosty means covered in frost, the white crystals on grass and windows. For people, icy is the stronger and angrier of the two.
Cool or cold?
Cool is milder and often pleasant: a cool evening, a cool drink, cool water on a hot day. Cold is stronger and more often unpleasant. For people, cool means calm or a little unfriendly (“a cool response”), and in slang it means good or fashionable, which has nothing to do with temperature.
What is the opposite of cold?
Warm, hot, mild and balmy for weather; warm, friendly and welcoming for people. See adjectives for hot.
New to adjectives? Start with what is an adjective.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
