Virtuous English AcademyQuality & Degree — B2 English Vocabulary
This B2 vocabulary list gathers 50 upper-intermediate English words about quality & degree — precise adjectives for nuance. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using quality & degree words in English
Adjectives of degree are the vocabulary of precision, and this page contains a genuinely surprising homograph: minute is a unit of time when stressed on the first syllable and a word meaning extremely small when stressed on the second. The page also separates negligible from negligent, a pair that differ by one syllable and by whether anyone is at fault, and sets out which of these adjectives can take very.
What to watch out for
MIN-it the noun, my-NEWT the adjective
The unit of time is MIN-it. The adjective meaning extremely small is my-NEWT, stressed on the second syllable: minute quantities of the substance. They are spelled identically and share a distant origin, but no listener will connect them unless you get the stress right. It is one of the most common mispronunciations among advanced learners.
Negligible is tiny; negligent is careless
Negligible means so small that it can be ignored: a negligible effect. Negligent means failing to take proper care, and it carries legal weight: negligent driving. The nouns are negligibility, which is rare, and negligence, which is everywhere in law. Only the second implies fault.
Extreme adjectives refuse very
Immense, vast, colossal, minute and extreme already contain the idea of very, so they take absolutely, completely or utterly. The gradable ones — considerable, mild, adequate, abundant, scarce — take very and quite normally. Note also the collocations: rain and traffic are heavy, pain and criticism are severe, competition is intense.
Words learners mix up
Three groups here repay close reading: the adjectives that grade how much there is, those that grade how noticeable something is, and those that grade how good it is. Each set moves along a scale, and picking a point on the wrong scale is the commonest error.
How much of it is there?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| scarce | Less than is needed. Judges the supply against a demand, so it is never purely a quantity. | Water became scarce by August. |
| adequate | Just enough, and no more. Faint praise in almost every context it appears in. | The lighting was adequate. |
| ample | Comfortably more than enough. Positive, and it implies room to spare. | Ample time to prepare. |
| abundant | Present in large quantities. Describes the amount itself rather than its sufficiency. | Rainfall is abundant in the north. |
| excessive | More than is right or reasonable. The negative end, and it always implies a judgement. | Excessive force was used. |
Four of these five are relative to a standard: scarce, adequate, ample and excessive all measure against what is needed, while abundant simply describes a large quantity. That is why abundant rainfall is neutral but excessive rainfall is a complaint. Insufficient is the formal negative of adequate and belongs in reports rather than speech.
How noticeable is it?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| apparent | Seeming to be the case — which may mean visible, or may mean only seeming. A genuinely ambiguous word. | His apparent calm was an act. |
| evident | Clear from the evidence. Safely means actually so, unlike apparent. | It was evident that they had rehearsed. |
| conspicuous | Standing out so as to attract attention. Often unwelcome attention. | A conspicuous gap in the accounts. |
| blatant | Obvious and unashamed about it. Always disapproving. | A blatant breach of the rules. |
| superficial | Only on the surface — of an injury, or of an analysis. In the second sense, a criticism. | A superficial reading of the text. |
Apparent is the one to handle carefully, because it faces both ways: the apparent cause may be the real one or merely the one that appears. If you mean it is genuinely so, evident or clear removes the doubt. And note the fixed phrase conspicuous by his absence, where the thing standing out is precisely what is not there.
How good is it?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| mediocre | Of only moderate quality. Damning precisely because it is mild — worse in effect than calling something bad. | A mediocre season. |
| inferior | Worse than something else. Comparative by nature, and it takes to, never than. | Materially inferior to the original. |
| exceptional | Far above the usual — or simply unusual. Both senses are current, so context decides. | Exceptional circumstances apply. |
| exquisite | Beautiful in a delicate, finely made way. Reserved for small and refined things. | Exquisite lacework. |
| immaculate | Perfectly clean or without a single flaw. About condition rather than quality of design. | The car was in immaculate condition. |
Two traps here. Inferior and superior take to: superior to the older model, never superior than. And exceptional is genuinely double-edged — exceptional results is praise, but exceptional cases only means unusual ones, so in formal writing let the noun make the sense clear.
Collocations that sound natural
Degree adjectives are among the most collocation-bound words in English: the adjective is chosen by the noun, not by the amount. These are the pairings to memorise as units.
severe
severe painsevere weathersevere criticisma severe shortage
The default intensifier for things that harm. Note that English says heavy rain and traffic, strong wind and coffee, and severe pain and criticism — one slot each, and swapping them is instantly noticeable.
considerable
a considerable amountconsiderable interestto a considerable extent
The formal, slightly cautious way of saying large. It attaches comfortably to abstract and uncountable nouns, which is why reports prefer it to big.
crucial
play a crucial rolea crucial factorcrucial to successat a crucial moment
Takes to, not for: crucial to the argument. It is already an extreme adjective, so very crucial is redundant.
utmost
of the utmost importancewith the utmost caredo your utmost
Almost exclusively found in these fixed frames. It cannot be used predicatively — the importance was utmost is not English.
sheer
sheer luckthe sheer scale ofout of sheer frustration
Means nothing but, and it goes before the noun only. It also has a literal sense of a vertical drop — a sheer cliff — which is a different word doing different work.
marginal
a marginal improvementmarginal gainsof marginal relevance
Small enough to be barely worth counting. Note marginal gains, a fixed phrase from sport meaning many tiny improvements that add up — its meaning is the opposite of dismissive.
Formal, neutral or informal?
Words of degree are where politeness lives. Several on this page are formally mild and functionally severe, and English speakers rely on that gap constantly.
- mediocreNegative · deceptively mildLiterally only average, but it is used as a serious criticism, particularly of work that was supposed to be good. Because it sounds moderate, it is often chosen for precisely that reason.
- adequateFaint praiseTechnically means sufficient, and in a report — adequate ventilation — that is all it means. Said of someone’s work, it is understood as disappointment. This is British understatement doing real damage.
- utterEmphatic · attributive onlyComplete, absolute: utter nonsense, utter chaos. It appears before the noun and almost only with negatives — utter success is not idiomatic, though utter delight just survives.
- dreadfulInformal · BritishVery bad. Common in British speech for anything from weather to a performance, and mild enough to be conversational, where appalling would sound serious.
- shabbyInformal · two sensesWorn and neglected, of clothes or a building — and mean or unfair, of behaviour: shabby treatment. The second sense is a real criticism dressed as a description of appearance.
- magnificentStrong praise · slightly grandImpressively beautiful or large. It suits buildings, landscapes and performances, and sounds overblown for small things, where exquisite or lovely fits better.
- crudeTwo registers at onceRoughly made or unrefined — a crude model, crude oil, both neutral and technical. Of language or humour it means vulgar. The technical uses are common enough that context usually settles it.
- trivialDismissiveOf no importance. Fine about a detail, but applied to someone’s concern it dismisses them, which is why minor is the safer word in a reply to a complaint.
Sentences to try
Four frames about degree. Say the second one aloud and check where the stress falls.
- The difference between the two results was negligible.
- The sample contained only minute traces of the compound.
- Rainfall was abundant in the north and scarce in the south.
- The response was adequate but hardly ample.
Questions about quality & degree vocabulary
How do you pronounce "minute" when it means very small?
The adjective is my-NEWT, with the stress on the second syllable and a long u sound: minute particles of dust. The noun meaning sixty seconds is MIN-it, stressed on the first syllable. The two are written identically and are historically related — both come from a Latin word meaning made small — but modern listeners treat them as separate words, and using the noun pronunciation for the adjective will simply be misheard. It is a classic trap for learners who acquire vocabulary through reading.
What is the difference between negligible and negligent?
Negligible describes a quantity or effect so small that it can reasonably be disregarded: The cost increase was negligible. Negligent describes a person or action that failed to take reasonable care, and it implies blame: The company was found negligent. The related nouns are negligence, a central concept in law, and the far rarer negligibility. Despite the shared root, one is about size and the other about fault, so swapping them changes the meaning completely.
Which adjectives can I use "very" with?
Use very with gradable adjectives — ones that describe a quality that can exist in degrees: very considerable, very mild, very scarce. Avoid it with extreme or absolute adjectives, which already contain the idea of very: immense, vast, colossal, minute, excessive. Those take absolutely, completely, utterly or totally instead. Really is the flexible intensifier that sits comfortably with both groups, which makes it useful when you are unsure.