Emotions are a natural, essential part of being human. Everything we do and experience leads to an emotional response. Emotions are messy, complex, and can be rather confusing.
Understanding your emotions is an absolutely necessary component of emotional intelligence. It’s also important to understand how to express your emotions. But expressing your emotions with words isn’t as easy as it sounds.
At least not for a lot of us.
Why is that? Vocabulary.
Expressing your emotions
Although emotional expression is not limited to verbal language, it’s certainly one of the most common methods. Being able to express your emotions using words requires a very specific skillset: understanding emotions in oneself. Before we can effectively communicate how we’re feeling, we must first understand our emotions.
One of the key components to understanding emotions is being able to label them. People who can label their emotions with a high degree of specificity can more easily regulate their emotions.
This also means they are less likely to participate in unhealthy behaviors, such as aggression.
Labeling our emotions requires developing an emotions vocabulary. You’ve got to know the words in order to use them.
Before we go into a list of emotions, let’s first review a couple different ways to categorize or organize emotions.
Emotion organization
Categorizing emotions need not be a big deal, but let me explain why it can be helpful for vocabulary development.
When we review a long list of words in alphabetical order, for example, it can be difficult to sift through and pick out the best word to use in a specific situation. If, instead, the words are grouped together by category, it can help us to narrow down our options.
Having words grouped together by varying categories can be helpful as our question or context changes. Let’s use food as an example.
Perhaps we’re interested in our fruit options. Skimming a long list of foods in alphabetical order could be daunting. However, if the list is instead organized by meat and fish, dairy, fruit, vegetables, and grains, it suddenly becomes much easier. Now all we have to do is review the fruit category to find what we’re looking for.
But maybe instead we’re interested in fruits that are high in a specific nutrient, such as iron.
Reviewing a list of foods categorized by nutrients could be helpful. Now we can see a list of iron-rich foods and can skim the list for fruits. Here we’ll see raspberries and dried fruits, such as apricots and prunes, may be good choices.
So let’s look at emotion organization.
Discrete Emotion Theory
Discrete Emotion Theory is the fancy name for the emotion categorization system designed by Paul Ekman. It’s the theory most commonly used when discussing emotions. It’s the theory which states there are six basic emotions: enjoyment, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.
Not only are these the (typically) most easily identified emotions, they’re the ones most commonly references in pop culture (ex: Inside Out).
Each of these emotions can vary in intensity. For example, fear could stem from worry or nervousness, or it could be as intense as anxiety or panic.
A common tool used to help identify your emotions using this theory is The Basic Emotions Wheel.
In this graphic, emotions are displayed in a pie chart and organized by the six basic emotions. You can look for your basic emotion at the center of the wheel and then span out to survey related emotion words that may more closely identify how you’re feeling.
There are variations on this wheel, but they all serve the same purpose and function in the same way.

Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions was designed by psychologist Robert Plutchik. It also includes basic emotions, but this model includes eight basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust.
These basic emotions are organized on a wheel based on the physiological purposes of each. Each primary emotion is depicted as having a polar opposite that’s based on the physiological reaction each emotion creates.
- Joy is the opposite of sadness. Their physiological reactions are connection vs. withdrawal.
- Fear is the opposite of anger. Their physiological reactions are to get small and hide vs. to get big and loud.
- Anticipation is the opposite of surprise. Their physiological reactions are to examine closely vs. to jump back.
- Disgust is the opposite of trust. Their physiological reactions are rejection vs. embracing.
The Wheel of Emotions also includes emotion combinations, such as combining anticipation and joy to create optimism. These are secondary emotions. The Wheel also accounts for tertiary emotions, which is a combination of three emotions.
Finally, the Wheel also denotes intensity of emotion. The emotions depicted at the center are more intense than those on the outside.
I love this Wheel of Emotions resource provided by sixseconds. It’s a helpful resource for gaining familiarity with the complexity of this model.

Emotion Meter
The Emotion Meter is another great tool for helping to identify and name your emotions. In fact, it’s a great tool when you’re not really certain where to begin.
This is because this model is designed by using two basic questions: (1) am I feeling pleasant or unpleasant? (2) is my energy high or low?
Once you’ve answered those two questions, you’ll be able to narrow down where to look on the Emotion Meter.
The Emotion Meter is laid out in a graph split into quadrants.
- Yellow zone: high energy, high pleasantness. Includes emotions such as happy, optimistic, festive, and exhilarated.
- Green zone: low energy, high pleasantness. Includes emotions such as relaxed, grateful, cozy, and fulfilled.
- Red zone: high energy, low pleasantness. Includes emotions such as annoyed, frustrated, panicked, and repulsed.
- Blue zone: low energy, low pleasantness. Includes emotions such as tired, despondent, discouraged, and disgusted.
The University of New Hampshire has created a helpful document explaining this in greater detail although they refer to it as a Mood Meter.

List of Emotions
Please understand this is a nonexhaustive list of emotions. I’ve compiled as many as I could to help make them a bit more accessible. You’ll see that I’ve grouped them according to the alphabet. This list is also available for PDF download.
A
- abhorrent
- acceptance
- admiration
- adoration
- affection
- afraid
- agitation
- agony
- aggressive
- alarmed
- alienation
- amazement
- ambivalence
- amusement
- anger
- anguish
- annoyed
- anticipating
- anxious
- apathy
- apprehension
- argumentative
- arrogant
- ashamed
- assertive
- astonished
- attentive
- attraction
- aversion
- awe
B
- baffled
- bewildered
- bitter
- bittersweetness
- bliss
- bored
- brazen
- brooding
C
- calm
- carefree
- careless
- caring
- charitable
- cheeky
- cheerful
- claustrophobic
- coercive
- comfortable
- compassion
- confident
- confused
- contempuous
- content
- courageous
- cowardly
- cruel
- curious
- cynical
D
- dazed
- dejected
- delighted
- demoralized
- depressed
- desire
- despair
- desperation
- determined
- disappointed
- disbelief
- discombobulated
- discomfort
- discontentment
- discouraged
- disdain
- disgruntled
- disgust
- disheartened
- dislike
- dismay
- disoriented
- dispirited
- displeasure
- distaste
- distraction
- distraught
- distress
- disturbed
- dominant
- doubt
- dread
- driven
- dumbstruck
E
- eager
- ecstasy
- ecstatic
- elation
- embarrassment
- empathy
- enchanted
- energetic
- enjoyment
- enlightened
- ennui
- enthusiasm
- envious
- epiphany
- euphoria
- exasperated
- excitement
- expectancy
F
- fascination
- fear
- fiero
- flakey
- focused
- fondness
- foolish
- fretful
- friendliness
- fright
- frustration
- furious
G
- glee
- gloomy
- glumness
- gratitude
- greed
- grief
- grievous
- grouchy
- grumpy
- guilt
H
- happiness
- hate
- hatred
- helpless
- homesick
- hope
- hopelessness
- horrified
- hospitable
- humiliation
- humility
- hurt
- hysteria
I
- idleness
- impatient
- inadequate
- indifference
- indignant
- infatuation
- infuriated
- insecure
- insightful
- inspired
- insulted
- interest
- intrigued
- irritable
- irritated
- isolated
J
- jealousy
- jovial
- joy
- jubilation
K
- kind
- kinky
L
- lazy
- liking
- loathing
- lonely
- longing
- loopy
- lost
- love
- lust
M
- mad
- melancholy
- miserable
- miserly
- misunderstood
- mixed up
- modesty
- moody
- mortified
- motivated
- mystified
N
- naches
- nasty
- nauseated
- negative
- neglect
- nervous
- nostalgic
- numb
O
- obstinate
- offended
- optimistic
- outrage
- overwhelmed
P
- panicked
- paranoid
- passion
- patience
- peaceful
- pensiveness
- perplexed
- persevering
- pessimistic
- pity
- pleased
- pleasure
- politeness
- positive
- possessive
- powerful
- powerless
- pride
- puzzled
Q
- quiet
- quizzical
R
- rage
- rash
- rattled
- regretful
- rejected
- rejoicing
- relaxed
- relieved
- reluctant
- remorse
- repugnance
- repulsion
- resentment
- resignation
- rested
- restlessness
- reticent
- revulsion
- ruthless
S
- sadness
- satisfaction
- scared
- schadenfreude
- scorn
- self-caring
- self-compassionate
- self-confident
- self-conscious
- self-critical
- self-loathing
- self-motivated
- self-pity
- self-respecting
- self-understanding
- sensory pleasure
- sentimental
- serenity
- shame
- shameless
- shocked
- silly
- smug
- somber
- sorrow
- spite
- stifled
- stressed
- strong
- stubborn
- stuck
- stupid
- submissive
- suffering
- sullenness
- surprise
- suspense
- suspicious
- sympathetic
T
- tenderness
- tension
- terror
- thankful
- thrilled
- timid
- tired
- tolerant
- torment
- trapped
- trepidation
- triumphant
- troubled
- trust
U
- uncertain
- uncomfortable
- undermined
- understood
- uneasy
- unhappy
- unnerved
- unsettled
- unsure
- upset
V
- valiant
- vengeful
- vicious
- vigilant
- vulnerable
W
- weak
- woeful
- wonder
- worried
- worthless
- worthy
- wrath
X
- xenial
- xenophile
Y
- youthful
- yielding
- yearning
Z
- zealous
- zen
- zesty
- zippy
Can you think of any emotions I’ve missed? Share them and I’ll add them to the list.
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