164 Adjectives That Start With C

C is a big letter, and a good deal of the reason is two Latin prefixes doing heavy work. 29 of the words below begin con- and 17 begin com-, most of them from the Latin for with or together — but not all of them. Conical comes from cone; contrary and controlling both come from contra, meaning against; and the com in comical is not Latin at all but part of the Greek komos, a revel.

This page lists 164 adjectives that start with C, sorted by what you need one for rather than by whether it is a compliment. 62 of them are in the section for describing people, and the letter is worth knowing well for exactly that: it holds unusually fine distinctions of character.

Curt, crass and churlish all describe someone saying it badly, and they are not interchangeable. The positive-and-negative table further down separates the compliments from the criticisms, since sorting by job mixes them together.

All 164 adjectives at a glance

cagey, callous, callow, calm, candid, canny, capable, capacious, capricious, carefree, careless, careworn, caring, categorical, caustic, cautious, cavernous, celestial, censorious, central, ceramic, cerebral, charismatic, charming, charred, chatty, cheap, cheeky, cheerful, cheerless, cheery, chequered, chic, childish, childlike, chilly, chivalrous, choleric, chuffed, chunky, churlish, circuitous, circular, circumspect, civil, clandestine, classic, clean, clear, clever, cloudy, cloying, clumsy, cluttered, coarse, coastal, cocky, coercive, cogent, collected, colloquial, colossal, colourful, combative, comfortable, comical, commanding, committed, commodious, compact, compassionate, competent, competitive, complacent, complex, complicated, complicit, composed, compostable, compressed, concave, conceited, conciliatory, concise, concrete, condescending, confident, conflicted, confounded, confrontational, congenial, congested, conical, conscientious, considerate, conspicuous, consummate, contemporary, contemptuous, content, contented, continuous, contoured, contrary, contrite, controlling, convenient, conventional, convivial, cooperative, copious, cordial, corpulent, corrosive, corrugated, costly, cosy, courageous, courteous, covert, covetous, cowardly, cracked, crafty, craggy, cramped, crass, craven, creaky, creamy, creative, credulous, crepuscular, crescent, crestfallen, crimson, crisp, critical, crooked, cross, crotchety, crowded, crude, cruel, crumbly, crumpled, crunchy, crusty, cryptic, crystalline, cubic, culpable, cumbersome, cunning, curious, curly, curmudgeonly, cursive, cursory, curt, curved, cushioned, cylindrical, cynical

For people

The section the letter is best at. Note the run of near-neighbours that trip writers up: childish and childlike are opposites in tone, cautious is about avoiding risk while circumspect is about weighing every circumstance first, and clever, crafty and cunning describe the same ability being used for three different purposes.

For places and things

Shape, texture, temperature and material. Oxford defines complex and complicated in almost the same words, but Merriam-Webster’s usage note draws a distinction worth keeping: complex describes many interacting parts and implies no fault, where complicated leans toward hard to follow.

For feelings and mood

States rather than dispositions. Contrite is the most precise of them, and the most formal: it is remorse shown as well as felt.

Rare and unusual

The formal and the little-used, plus a run of words that are ordinary in speech but rarely reach the page. Cogent and canny belong to the second kind and are worth reaching for; crepuscular belongs to the first, and is here because nothing else says it.

Positive and negative at a glance

Sorting by job rather than by tone means compliments and criticisms sit side by side above. Here a selection of them is separated into three columns, using words already defined on this page — and the third column is the interesting one.

The third column is where the letter earns its keep. Critical is a compliment about judgement and an accusation about temperament, and the sentence around it decides which. Competitive and cunning behave the same way — both are praise in a description of a rival and criticism in a reference.

Using them in a sentence

• A candid answer from a cautious witness is worth more than a confident one.
• The room was cramped, cluttered and unexpectedly cosy.
• He was charming on arrival and curt by the end, which told everyone what they needed.
• She looked crestfallen for about a minute and then entirely composed.
• A cursory reading of a cogent argument is how good ideas get dismissed.
• The path was circuitous, the light crepuscular, and nobody minded.

Related guides

• Adjectives for crying — where crestfallen and crushed do their closest work.
• Adjectives for a cough — the medical descriptors this page leaves out.
• Adjectives for chaos — expands cluttered, congested and crowded.
• Adjectives for cold — far more precise than chilly on its own.
• Adjectives for companies — for competitive, conventional and consummate in a business sense.
• Adjectives for confident — the fuller set behind confident, cocky and commanding.

Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.