Light, Look & Texture — C1 English Vocabulary

Using light, look & texture words in English

Adjectives describing people’s appearance are almost never neutral in English, and using them well is as much a matter of tact as of vocabulary. Gaunt, portly and scruffy all carry judgements that their dictionary definitions understate. This page sorts them by what they imply, and flags one word — swarthy — that careful modern writing avoids altogether.

What to watch out for

• Thinness divides sharply by health

  Gaunt, haggard and emaciated all indicate that thinness is the result of illness, hunger or exhaustion, and none is a compliment: haggard specifically means looking worn and tired. Petite and lithe are positive and describe small neat build and supple grace respectively. Slim is the neutral compliment; skinny tips towards criticism.

• Build words carry their own tone

  Burly and stocky describe solid, muscular builds and are broadly neutral to positive. Portly is a euphemism for overweight and sounds mildly old-fashioned and faintly amused. Lanky means tall and thin with a suggestion of awkwardness. Because all of these judge, English speakers avoid them about people present and reach for them in narrative.

• Grooming, and one word to avoid

  Dishevelled means untidy in appearance, often temporarily; scruffy is stronger and habitual; dapper and well-groomed are the compliments, with dapper implying neat, stylish smartness. Swarthy, meaning dark-complexioned, has acquired strong negative and racial associations through a century of stock villain descriptions, and careful modern writing does not use it.

Words learners mix up

Beyond build and grooming, this page divides three ways: what a face is doing, what colour it has gone, and how a surface takes the light. The expression words are the most useful in fiction, because each one tells the reader what to think of the person.

Collocations that sound natural

Appearance vocabulary is heavily collocational — the adjective is often chosen by the noun rather than by the quality. These pairings are worth learning as units.

• complexion

  a fair complexiona sallow complexionput a different complexion on

  The colour and condition of facial skin. Note the entirely separate idiom put a different complexion on things, meaning to change how a situation looks — one of the odder metaphors in ordinary English.

• poise

  regain your poiselose your poisepoise and confidence

  Uncountable, and it means calm self-possession as much as physical balance. As a verb, poised means ready and about to act — poised to announce — which is a different word doing different work.

• physique

  an athletic physiquea slight physiquebuild up your physique

  The form and development of the body, and a more clinical word than build. Pronounced fi-ZEEK, keeping its French sound.

• threadbare

  a threadbare carpetthreadbare cuffsa threadbare excuse

  Worn until the threads show. The figurative use for an argument or excuse used too often is at least as common as the literal one.

• taut

  pull the rope tauttaut with tensiona taut thriller

  Stretched tight. In reviewing, a taut narrative is one with nothing slack in it, which is high praise — and its opposite there is not slack but baggy.

• sleek

  sleek dark haira sleek designsleek and modern

  Smooth and glossy, and by extension elegantly streamlined. Applied to a person it can suggest a slightly too-polished prosperity, which is a useful ambiguity in fiction.

See the full C1 collocations list →

Formal, neutral or informal?

Describing how someone or something looks is where English is most likely to embarrass a writer. These words carry judgements, and several are cleaner about objects than about people.

• dingyNegative · about neglectDirty-looking and dim, of rooms and fabric. It blames long neglect rather than a single mess, which is why a dingy hotel cannot be fixed by cleaning it once.
• grubbyInformal · mildSlightly dirty. Conversational and gentle — a child’s hands are grubby — and it has a figurative use for something morally shabby: a grubby little deal.
• spotlessPositive · absolutePerfectly clean. It takes no comparative, and it extends to reputations and records, where a spotless record is a fixed phrase.
• unblemishedFormal · literal and moralWithout a single mark. More formal than spotless and more often figurative — of a reputation or a career rather than a kitchen floor.
• weatheredNeutral to admiringMarked by long exposure to the elements, of wood, stone and faces. Unlike most words for ageing it is complimentary, implying endurance rather than decay.
• fluorescentTechnical · and a colour claimEmitting light after absorbing radiation. In everyday use it simply means an intensely bright colour, and note the spelling — fluor-, not flour-.
• iridescenceFormal · admiringThe quality of showing shifting colours as the angle changes. A long word with no short equivalent, so it is worth the space when the effect is genuinely there.
• opacityTechnical · then figurativeThe state of not letting light through. Its figurative use — the opacity of a text or an institution — is common in criticism, where it is a polite word for impenetrable.

Sentences to try

Four frames describing appearance. Ask in each case whether you would say it to the person.

• He looked haggard after three nights without sleep.
• A burly man in a high-visibility jacket waved us through.
• She arrived slightly dishevelled but entirely composed.
• He is always immaculately dapper.

Questions about light, look & texture vocabulary