Feelings Wheel: Free Printable PDF and How to Use It

Download the feelings wheel PDF

The wheel above is also available as a clean, print-ready page. Page one has the feelings wheel plus the full word list; page two has Plutchik's classic wheel of emotions. There's no background color, so it prints well on a home printer in black and white or color.

The PDF is a ready file: download it once and it opens on your phone without an internet connection, which is handy for a session with a therapist, a classroom, or a journal you keep in a drawer. No email or sign-up is needed. If you'd rather print straight from the browser, open the printable page and use your browser's print dialog.

Need a bigger file for a poster, slides or a print shop? Both wheels also come as high-resolution A4 sheets: a 300 dpi PNG and a vector SVG that stays sharp at any size.

High-resolution wheels to download

A4 sheets: PNG at 2480×3508 pixels (300 dpi), vector SVG for printing at any size or editing, and a PDF ready for the printer.

Free to reuse with a link to the source — CC BY 4.0 · terms

Need an image, a black-and-white sheet, or a simpler wheel for a child? They're below. The kids' wheel has ten emotions with faces and two easy words each, so a child can point instead of explaining.

Here's every word on the wheel as text, so you can copy it or read it with a screen reader:

How to read the feelings wheel

The wheel has two rings.

The center holds 10 core families: joy, calm, love and connection, interest, surprise, sadness, fear and anxiety, anger, disgust, and shame and guilt. These are broad categories. If all you can say is "something in the anger area," that's already a good start.

The outer ring holds 50 specific feelings, five for each family. They get more precise as you move outward: "anger" becomes irritation, frustration, hurt, jealousy, or rage. Each one points to a slightly different situation, and to a different next step. Frustration usually means something is blocking a goal. Hurt usually means someone crossed a line with you.

A few reading tips:

• You can land in two places at once. Mixed feelings are normal. "Proud and anxious" before a new job is a perfectly accurate answer.
• Intensity matters. Some words are mild (worry, irritation), some are strong (panic, rage). If you're not sure which one fits, rate how strong the feeling is from 1 to 10 and pick the word that matches.
• Don't skip the pleasant side. Most people reach for the wheel when things feel bad. Naming good feelings precisely, such as relief versus contentment versus pride, tells you what's worth repeating.

For 100+ words with a one-line meaning each, use the full list of emotions. The wheel is the quick version; the list is the dictionary.

Plutchik's wheel of emotions

Many feelings wheels trace back to two sources. Psychologist Robert Plutchik proposed eight basic emotions arranged in pairs of opposites (joy and sadness, trust and disgust, fear and anger, surprise and anticipation), each at three intensities, with blends between neighboring petals. In 1982, therapist Gloria Willcox published the "Feeling Wheel," with six core feelings in the center and more specific words around them. Our wheel follows that second idea, with our own word choices. Plutchik's version looks like this:

Tap any emotion below to see its three intensities, its opposite, how it mixes with its neighbors, and a journal prompt to start from.

A 3-minute feelings wheel exercise

Use this in the evening, or right after something that stirred you up. All you need is the wheel, on screen or on paper, and a quiet minute.

1. Check your body (30 seconds). Where do you feel something right now: jaw, shoulders, chest, stomach? Is it tension, heaviness, shakiness, warmth?
2. Pick a family from the center (30 seconds). Go with your first answer; it's usually right.
3. Move outward (30 seconds). Which of the five outer words fits best? If none is perfect, pick the closest.
4. Rate it (30 seconds). How strong is it, 1 to 10? Is there a second feeling next to it?
5. Ask what it's signaling (60 seconds). What caused it, and what does it seem to want from you? Write one line.

It takes three minutes, but after a couple of weeks those one-line notes start to show patterns: which people, times of day, and situations bring up the same feelings. That's exactly what a mood journal is for.

Using the wheel with kids, partners, and clients

The wheel works well as a shared reference. Kids can point instead of explaining. Couples can use it to slow down an argument ("I'm not angry, I'm hurt"). Many therapists and coaches keep one on the table. When you print it for a younger child, it can help to start with just the center ring and add the outer words over time.

The digital feelings wheel in EmoAtlas

A paper wheel is great for naming a feeling today. It can't tell you what's been happening for the last month. That's where tracking helps.

In EmoAtlas, a check-in takes a few seconds: pick a mood face on a five-point scale, then the feelings that fit, such as joy, calm, gratitude, anxiety, sadness, anger, or fatigue. For anxiety and joy you can add what they're about (work, money, relationships, a loved one's health) or where they come from. You can also tap the body map to mark where you feel tension or heaviness.

Over time, the app compares days with and without each tag and shows what moves your mood, while the body view shows where tension tends to live. The wheel helps you find the word; the journal helps you find the pattern.

Frequently asked questions