List of Emotions: 100+ Feelings With Meanings

This list of emotions gives you more than 100 feeling words, sorted into 10 families, each with a one-line meaning and an intensity rating. It's built for real life: for the moment you're asked "how are you?" and the only honest answer you can find is "fine" or "bad." The words are usually there. You just need a map to get to them.

How to use it: find the family closest to what you feel (joy, sadness, anger, fear...), then scan inside it for the most precise word. The dots show intensity, from one (mild) to three (strong). "Irritation" and "rage" live in the same family, but they're very different experiences, and they call for different responses.

Core emotions: where the list starts

Researchers still debate how many "basic" emotions humans have. Psychologist Paul Ekman, who studied facial expressions, described six that people across very different cultures tend to recognize on a face: happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust. Robert Plutchik proposed eight and arranged them in a circle, which became the well-known emotion wheel (there's a printable feelings wheel with his version too).

For everyday purposes, the exact number matters less than the idea behind it: there are a few "primary colors," and most of what you feel is a shade or a blend of them. Here are Plutchik's eight, each with a milder and a stronger form:

Notice how easy the mild forms are to miss. "Pensiveness" doesn't feel like sadness, "apprehension" doesn't feel like fear, and "annoyance" doesn't feel like anger. But the mild stage is exactly when an emotion is easiest to notice and handle, before it grows.

The full list of emotions and feelings, by family

Below are 100+ words grouped into 10 families. We started with Plutchik's eight and added calm, connection, and shame and guilt, because a feelings vocabulary without them has obvious gaps. Each family comes with a short note on what that group of emotions tends to signal.

A few things that make the list easier to use:

• One event can bring several emotions. After a tough talk with your boss you might feel relief (it's over), hurt (something unfair was said), and worry (what happens next). Name all three.
• Some words cross families. "Longing" can lean toward sadness or toward love. Pick the row whose meaning fits better.
• A loud emotion often covers a quieter one. Rage is frequently sitting on top of hurt or fear; numbness can hide exhaustion and disappointment. Once the top layer has a name, ask, "and what's underneath?"

Emotion vs. feeling: is there a difference?

In everyday speech the two words are used interchangeably, and this list uses both. Still, the distinction helps you describe your state more precisely.

An emotion is a fast reaction to something happening right now. It shows up in your body: heart rate jumps, shoulders tighten, your face gets hot. It usually lasts seconds to minutes. The jolt when a dog leaps out at you on a walk is an emotion.

A feeling is the more lasting experience or attitude that forms around emotions, often with some thought mixed in. It can stretch over days or years and hold many emotions inside it. Love for your kid is a feeling, and within it there's joy, worry, and irritation when the juice gets spilled for the third time.

A mood is the background tone that lasts hours or days and often isn't tied to a single event. It's the easiest thing to rate on a simple scale: rough, meh, okay, good, great.

For journaling, this gives you a simple rule: rate your mood every day, name emotions when something hits you, and write about feelings when you want to understand a relationship with a person, a job, or a place.

Printable list of emotions (save it as a PDF)

A list like this works best within reach: on the fridge, in a notebook, next to your desk, or in a classroom. We made a separate page that fits neatly on Letter or A4 paper, with no background colors or buttons. In your browser's print dialog, choose "Save as PDF" to keep a copy on your phone that opens offline.

If you're printing it for a child or teen, you don't need all 100+ words at once. Start with two or three words per family, such as the moderate ones, and add more when they're needed.

How to use the list of emotions in a journal

The list pays off when you use it a little, regularly. Two minutes a day is plenty:

1. Rate your overall mood from 1 to 5. It takes a second and later turns into a chart.
2. Name one to three emotions from the list. Don't hunt for the perfect word. "Closer than just bad" is the goal.
3. Rate the intensity using the dots: mild, moderate, or strong. After a week you'll likely see that "strong" days are rarer than they felt.
4. Add what came before it: an event, a person, sleep, caffeine, your commute. One line is enough.
5. Look back once a week. Which words repeat? On which days, and after what?

A sample entry: "Evening, mood 2 of 5. Disappointment (moderate) and tiredness. The trip I was counting on got postponed. Tension in my shoulders." That takes about a minute to write. A month of entries like that starts to show which situations bring the same emotions again and again.

For more on formats and example entries, see how to start a mood journal. If you want to build the underlying skill of noticing and naming what you feel, read about emotional awareness.

In EmoAtlas, this whole routine takes a few seconds: tap a mood face, pick a feeling or two, set your energy level, and, if you like, mark where your body feels tension or heaviness. The app compares your days and shows what moves your mood, and your notes are encrypted on your device.

When naming it isn't enough

A list of emotions helps you put words to what's going on, but it isn't a diagnostic tool. If heavy emotions like anxiety, emptiness, or despair stick around for weeks, or get in the way of sleep, work, or relationships, it's worth talking to a therapist or doctor. Your journal can help there too: it makes it easier to explain what's been happening and for how long. If you're having thoughts of harming yourself, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) at any time, or call 911 in an emergency.