132 Adjectives That Start With B
B is the letter of blunt force. Its insults are short and loud — brash, bossy, boorish, brutal — and they land harder than their length suggests. Its compliments are longer and quieter, and a run of the warmest are built on the same Latin bene-, meaning well: benevolent, beneficial, benign.
This page lists 132 adjectives that start with B, sorted by the job you need one for. Two clusters do a disproportionate amount of the work: 23 begin bl- and 28 begin br-, which is more than a third of the letter between them.
Sorted the way this page sorts them, the criticism section comes out larger than the praise section — 28 words against 24. Take that as a description of these lists rather than a fact about English, but it matches what the letter feels like to use.
All 132 adjectives at a glance
Every word on this page in one block. Each is defined further down.
backhanded, bad-tempered, baggy, balanced, bald, balmy, banal, bandy-legged, bankable, barbaric, barefoot, barrel-chested, barren, base, bashful, battered, bawdy, beady, bearded, becoming, bedraggled, begrudging, beguiling, beige, belligerent, bendy, beneficial, benevolent, benign, bereaved, bereft, bespoke, bewitching, biannual, biddable, biennial, big, big-hearted, bigoted, bilingual, biodegradable, biting, bitter, black, blameless, bland, blank, blasé, blatant, bleak, bleary, blemished, blessed, blighted, blinkered, blissful, blithe, bloated, blond, bloodshot, bloody-minded, blotchy, blue, blunt, blurry, blustery, boastful, boggy, boiling, bold, bombastic, bonny, bony, bookish, boorish, boring, bossy, bottomless, bouncy, bountiful, bourgeois, boxy, boyish, bracing, brackish, brainy, brand-new, brash, brave, brawny, brazen, breakable, breathtaking, breezy, brief, bright, bright-eyed, brilliant, briny, brisk, bristly, brittle, broad, broad-minded, broken, bronze, brooding, brotherly, brunette, brusque, brutal, bubbly, budding, bulbous, bulky, bull-headed, bulletproof, bumbling, bumper, bumptious, bumpy, buoyant, burdensome, burly, burnt, bushy, businesslike, busy, buttery, buttoned-up, buxom, bygone
Positive
Praise-side words. Becoming is the one most worth rescuing: it means fitting or suitable, and it works on conduct as readily as on clothes — a becoming humility, as much as a becoming coat.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| balanced | giving fair weight to each side |
| bankable | certain enough of success to raise money on |
| becoming | suitable and fitting, of clothes or of conduct |
| beneficial | producing a good result |
| benevolent | kindly disposed, and inclined to act on it |
| benign | gentle in effect and doing no harm |
| bewitching | charming to the point of holding attention |
| blameless | having done nothing to answer for |
| blessed | favoured by good fortune |
| blissful | in a state of perfect happiness |
| blithe | cheerful to the point of not noticing what should worry you |
| bold | willing to take a risk in the open |
| bonny | healthy-looking and pleasant, in Scottish and northern use |
| bountiful | giving generously and in quantity |
| brainy | notably intelligent, informally |
| brave | meeting danger or difficulty without flinching |
| breathtaking | striking enough to stop you where you stand |
| bright | quick to learn, or giving off strong light |
| brilliant | outstandingly clever, or vivid to look at |
| brisk | quick and purposeful in movement |
| budding | beginning to develop, and showing promise |
| bumper | unusually large or plentiful, of a crop or a year |
| buoyant | cheerful and difficult to depress |
| businesslike | efficient and without fuss |
Negative
Criticism-side words. It runs to two extremes with little in between: a cluster for noise and swagger — brash, boastful, bombastic, bumptious, brazen — and a much harder cluster for cruelty, in barbaric, brutal and bigoted.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| backhanded | phrased as praise but landing as an insult |
| banal | so unoriginal it is tiresome |
| barbaric | savagely cruel |
| base | dishonourably low in motive |
| bawdy | coarsely and humorously about sex |
| begrudging | given reluctantly and shown to be reluctant |
| belligerent | spoiling for a fight |
| bigoted | stubbornly intolerant of any other view |
| biting | sharply hurtful in wording |
| bitter | resentful long after the cause has passed |
| bland | without any strong quality at all |
| blatant | done openly and without shame |
| bleak | offering no comfort and no prospect |
| blighted | spoiled by something that ruined its promise |
| blinkered | unable to consider anything outside a narrow view |
| bloated | swollen well past a healthy size |
| boastful | given to praising oneself aloud |
| bombastic | inflated in language and empty behind it |
| boorish | rough and rude in company |
| boring | tedious, and losing the listener |
| bossy | fond of telling other people what to do |
| brash | loudly self-assured in a way that grates |
| brazen | shameless, and making no attempt to hide it |
| brusque | abrupt to the point of rudeness |
| brutal | cruel with no attempt to soften it |
| bumbling | muddled and inept |
| bumptious | self-important in a way that intrudes on others |
| burdensome | heavy to carry, as a load or as a duty |
Manner and circumstance
How someone is placed and how they come across, rather than a verdict on their character — though bourgeois and beguiling both carry an edge. Bereaved and bereft come from the same verb: the first is almost always about death, the second usually is not, though it can be.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| barefoot | wearing nothing on the feet |
| bashful | shy in a way that shows |
| beguiling | charming, with a hint that the charm is working on you |
| bereaved | having recently lost someone to death |
| bereft | stripped of something and feeling the lack |
| biddable | willing to do as asked |
| bilingual | in or using two languages, usually about equally well |
| blasé | unimpressed, through having seen it all before |
| blunt | saying it plainly, with nothing softened |
| bookish | studious, and more at ease reading than in company |
| bourgeois | of the conventional middle class, usually said with an edge |
| boyish | having the look or manner of a young man |
| brotherly | showing the loyalty and plain affection of a sibling |
| busy | with more to do than there is time for |
Physical appearance
Build, hair and the state of the face. Bleary and bloodshot both describe a tired eye and both show: bloodshot names the redness, bleary the dullness and the difficulty focusing.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| bald | without hair on the head |
| bandy-legged | with legs that curve outward at the knee |
| barrel-chested | with a deep and rounded chest |
| beady | small, round and sharply watchful, of eyes |
| bearded | with hair grown on the chin and jaw |
| bedraggled | wet, dirty and thoroughly out of order |
| big | large in build, and noticed for it |
| bleary | dim and unfocused from tiredness |
| blemished | spoiled by a single mark on an otherwise clear surface |
| blond | fair in hair colour |
| bloodshot | red in the white of the eye |
| blotchy | unevenly reddened in patches |
| bony | thin enough for the bones to show through |
| brawny | strong and muscular in the arms and shoulders |
| broad | wide across, especially at the shoulder |
| brunette | dark brown in hair colour |
| bulky | taking up more room than is convenient |
| burly | big-framed and solid, with weight behind it |
| bushy | thick and spreading, of hair or eyebrows |
| buxom | full-figured, of a woman |
Personality
Settled disposition rather than a passing mood. Five of these build character out of a body part or the mind — big-hearted, bull-headed, bright-eyed, bloody-minded, broad-minded — a habit English uses mostly, though not only, for people.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| bad-tempered | easily angered, as a settled disposition |
| big-hearted | generous in feeling toward others |
| bloody-minded | obstructive on purpose, and enjoying it |
| breezy | cheerfully casual about things others take seriously |
| bright-eyed | eager and visibly alert |
| broad-minded | willing to entertain views that are not one’s own |
| brooding | sunk in dark thought and showing it |
| bubbly | lively and full of talk |
| bull-headed | obstinate past the point of reason |
| buttoned-up | restrained, and keeping feeling well out of sight |
Everyday and descriptive
Objects, weather, textures and time. Bracing is the pick of them: it turns cold from a complaint into a compliment, which refreshing manages only halfway.
| Adjective | What it means |
|---|---|
| baggy | hanging loose rather than fitting |
| balmy | pleasantly mild, of weather |
| battered | knocked about by long use |
| beige | a pale sandy fawn |
| bendy | able to be bent without breaking |
| bespoke | made to a particular customer’s order |
| biannual | twice a year, though also used for every two years |
| biennial | every second year, or living two years, of a plant |
| biodegradable | decaying naturally through the action of bacteria |
| black | of the darkest colour there is |
| blank | bearing no mark, and giving nothing away |
| blue | of the colour of a clear sky |
| blurry | out of focus |
| blustery | gusty and rough, of wind |
| boggy | soft and waterlogged underfoot |
| boiling | at the temperature where a liquid turns to vapour |
| bottomless | too deep for the bottom to be reached |
| bouncy | springing back readily |
| boxy | angular and square rather than shaped |
| bracing | invigorating, and giving a sense of freshness |
| brackish | slightly salt, of water |
| brand-new | not yet used at all |
| breakable | fragile enough to need care in handling |
| brief | lasting only a short time |
| briny | salty, of water or of air off the sea |
| bristly | covered in short stiff hairs |
| brittle | hard but easily snapped |
| barren | bare and producing no crop, of land |
| broken | no longer working, or no longer in one piece |
| bronze | of a brownish metallic colour |
| bulbous | rounded and bulging, usually unattractively |
| bulletproof | able to stop a bullet |
| bumpy | uneven to travel over |
| burnt | blackened or spoiled by fire |
| buttery | rich, soft and faintly yellow |
| bygone | belonging to a time now past |
Using them in a sentence
A list is only half the job. These show the words carrying weight rather than sitting decoratively in front of a noun.
- A brisk reply to a blatant excuse, and the meeting moved on.
- The morning was bracing rather than bitter, which is the whole difference.
- He was bookish, bashful and quietly brilliant at the one thing that mattered.
- A backhanded compliment from a bumptious colleague, delivered in front of everyone.
- The chair was battered and blemished, and still bulky enough to fill the corner.
- She stayed buoyant through a bleak quarter, which is harder than it reads.
Words people get wrong
| Pair | The difference that matters |
|---|---|
| biannual / biennial | Biannual is twice a year; biennial is every second year. The pair is genuinely confusing rather than merely confused — enough writers use biannual for both that it is safer to write “twice a year” and avoid the word. |
| bereaved / bereft | Both come from bereave. Bereaved is reserved for loss by death; bereft is for anything you have been stripped of, including hope and, occasionally, ideas. |
| baleful / baneful | Neither is on this page, and both are worth knowing. Baleful describes a look that threatens harm; baneful describes a thing that causes it. |
| blatant / flagrant | Flagrant is not on this page, but it is the word most often swapped with the one that is. Blatant is about being undisguised; flagrant is about being outrageous. A blatant lie is obvious; a flagrant one is shocking. Merriam-Webster notes that usage writers warn against treating them as interchangeable, though a great deal of bad behaviour is honestly both. |
| brake / break | Not adjectives, but the B-pair most often mistyped. Brake stops a wheel; break is everything else. |
Related guides
- Adjectives for the body — expands the appearance section well beyond this letter.
- Adjectives for behaviour — where boorish and brash sit alongside the rest of conduct.
- Adjectives for a boss — for bossy, brusque and businesslike, which describe three different managers.
- Adjectives for a brother — the fuller set behind brotherly.
- Adjectives for bad — for when the criticism section here is not specific enough.
- Adjectives for a bully — where belligerent, bigoted and brutal do their closest work.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
