An Advanced Verbs List for Better Writing

Writing requires more than following rules. Even when you follow all rules and guidelines to the letter, your content can still feel lifeless if you choose words poorly. If you want to expand your vocabulary and improve your writing, try to gain inspiration from this advanced verbs list.

What Are Advanced Verbs?

Advanced verbs are a great way to level up your writing. A writer’s primary tool should be his vocabulary and ability to string words together well. 

Writing grammatically-correct content isn’t enough to attract readers and impress evaluators. Advanced verbs, or strong verbs, are a way to express an idea more compellingly. They don’t just describe an action. Instead, they also represent the manner an action is performed.

Advanced verbs are verbs that are potent and precise. They describe an action without the need for supporting adverbs. 

How Do They Impact Your Writing?

Strong verbs are essential because they help your reader understand how your characters are feeling. Additional verbs don’t only convey powerful imagery by themselves; they help enhance your sentences and meanings. 

Stronger verbs are also used to emphasize certain parts of your writing. Powerful verbs make your point clearer and give readers a sense of the details and experiences mentioned in your piece. 

Advanced verbs help showcase your ability and knowledge as a writer. They are indicators of intelligence and thoughtfulness. Strong verbs result in impactful content and convey the idea more efficiently than weak verbs.

Identifying Weak Verbs

If a sentence doesn’t feel as impactful or exciting as it should, chances are it’s using a weak verb. As you hone your writing skills, you’ll learn to identify weak verbs as soon as you read them. For now, you can check for verbs using these three criteria.

Passive Verbs

State-of-being verbs are notorious for being passive. They make sentences sound impotent and feeble. State-of-being verbs describe a person’s state as if he had no control over his circumstance. 

For example:

Passive: He was being polite.

Powerful: He showed respect.

Reliance on Adverbs

As the name suggests, strong verbs are able to stand alone. They don’t need adverbs to convey their meaning.

For example:

Weak: The lion ran quickly across the grasslands.

Strong: The lion sprinted across the grasslands.

Verbs With -Ing Suffixes

Verbs with -ing sound similar to state-of-being verbs because they give the impression an action is incomplete and a goal is unattained.

For example:

Weak: She was loving the way he smiled at her.

Strong: She loved the way he smiled at her.

Use This Advanced Verbs List

Try these advanced verbs if you’re struggling to find a strong verb to describe an action.

• Hail
• Burst
• Capture
• Catch
• Ignite
• Intensify
• Jostle
• Slide
• Skip
• Free
• Think
• Change
• Notify
• Notice
• Post
• Place
• Devour
• Cower
• Cackle
• Demolish
• Direct
• Discover
• Soar
• Plunge
• Ensnare
• Power
• Pluck
• Unveil
• Drain
• Pinpoint

In Summary

Advanced words convey a more accurate idea and have a vibrant tone. They are leagues more impactful than weak words because they are precise. Before consulting a thesaurus, or this article, try to replace weak verbs with ones you already know. This will help you cultivate a habit of thinking hard about your word choice.