365+ Strong Verbs to Turn You Into a Literary Tyrannosaurus

Writing is a storytelling medium. Every sentence is an opportunity to tell a part of that story, elaborating on the plot, characters, or atmosphere. This also opens up a world of options beyond just “Harry opened the door.” What if Harry “jimmied the door,” or “threw the door open”?  By using strong verbs (or “action words”) that vividly convey meaning, we can eliminate the need for adverbs or overly descriptive language.

Here’s a quick table to illustrate how you can upgrade a “weak” verb to a strong verb:

Category	Weak verb	Strong verb
Movement	walk	stride, dash, lumber, creep
Speech	say	whisper, bellow, murmur, proclaim
Action	do	grasp, hurl, demolish, craft

Let’s dive deeper into it now!

Why should you use strong verbs?

A lot of the time, it simply comes down to using evocative verbs: doing words that not only tell us what is happening but how it is being done as well. “But wait!” you say, “isn’t that what adverbs are for?”

Adverbs: who needs them?

In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King had this to say on adverbs:

“The adverb is not your friend. With adverbs, the writer usually tells us he or she is afraid he/she isn’t expressing himself/herself clearly, that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across.”

Adverbs, by definition, are modifiers that writers can use to describe an action. But more often than not, you can use a strong verb that makes the adverb redundant:

• He walked slowly → He sauntered
• She ate voraciously → She gobbled
• They sleep lightly → They dozed

Apart from simply being economical your word count and avoiding purple prose, there are plenty of sound reasons to choose stronger verbs.

Show, Don’t Tell

The granddaddy of writing aphorisms: show, don’t tell. The principle behind this is as follows: it’s far more satisfying for readers to infer what’s happening than for every piece of information to be spoon-fed to them. But perhaps more importantly, “showing” keeps a reader under the spell of the story, while “telling” reminds them that there’s a narrator at work, spinning a tale.

By choosing a solid, evocative verb, you deliver so much more information to the reader while remaining under the radar.

Maintain immediacy and build pace

Another reason for maintaining an arsenal of strong verbs is to preserve and build momentum. By economizing on words and packing each action with more meaning, you can up the pace of a passage. Strip out ALL the adverbs and adjectives and deploy some well-chosen verbs, and watch how your writing hums along like a cigarette boat off the coast of Miami.

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That brings us to the main event: our list of 300+ strong verbs. Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list! But by browsing through these hand-picked examples of strong verbs, you should start to get an idea of how many words are already in your vocabulary — and how you can employ them in your writing.

Moving verbs

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

How can a phrase with so many letters of the alphabet also be so dull? It’s a wonder the fox didn’t conk out mid-sentence and collapse onto the lethargic dog!

You can switch out boring words like ‘walk’ and ‘run,’ and spice up your characters’ motions with these verbs.

• Advance
• Bolt
• Bound
• Burst
• Bust
• Bustle
• Charge
• Clamber
• Climb
• Crash
• Dash
• Depart
• Deviate
• Escort
• Explore
• Extend
• Fly
• Gravitate
• Hobble
• Hurry
• Journey
• Launch
• Lead
• Leap
• Lurch
• Mount
• Plunge
• Race
• Retreat
• Revolve
• Rush
• Saunter
• Scamper
• Skip
• Slide
• Slink
• Slip
• Sneak
• Soar
• Spurt
• Storm
• Stroll
• Stumble
• Surge
• Tail
• Toddle
• Travel
• Trip
• Trudge
• Usher
• Weave
• Wind

Handling verbs

You don’t always have to have your protagonist ‘holding’ something or ‘putting’ it down — that tells us nothing about the character, object, or the action. Here are some sweet alternate verbs that will pull readers into your scene about a guy with a thing in his hand:

• Capture
• Catch
• Clasp
• Clutch
• Coddle
• Dangle
• Deposit
• Drag
• Drop
• Ensnare
• Envelop
• Expose
• Extract
• Fling
• Fondle
• Grasp
• Grip
• Grope
• Intertwine
• Juggle
• Peck
• Pilot
• Place
• Pluck
• Prune
• Remove
• Scrape
• Scratch
• Scrawl
• Seize
• Serve
• Snag
• Sprinkle
• Steal
• Steer
• Strain
• Stretch
• Swipe
• Trim
• Twirl
• Uncover
• Unpick
• Untangle
• Wield
• Wrench
• Wrest
• Wring
• Yank

Speaking verbs

Buckle up: you’re about to get some advice that sounds contradictory, but really isn’t. The golden rule about writing dialogue is that you shouldn’t use dialogue tags more exotic than “he said,” and “she said.” And that is true. Doctor Watson “ejaculating” in surprise is much more distracting than Watson saying: “My word, Holmes. What a shock!” Yet in the rare cases where “said” doesn’t do the trick, here are some strong alternate verbs for characters who are flapping their lips:

• Advise
• Amplify
• Assert
• Bellow
• Blab
• Brief
• Broadcast
• Command
• Converse
• Croon
• Crow
• Gab
• Garble
• Gloat
• Groan
• Growl
• Gush
• Impart
• Instruct
• Mimic
• Moan
• Muse
• Notify
• Recite
• Report
• Roar
• Shriek
• Snarl
• Snipe
• Tattle
• Wail

However, if you are looking to beef up your arsenal of dialogue tags even more, why not download our free list of 150 other words for ‘said’?

Thinking verbs

Dust off those thinking caps — it’s time to get our noggins whirring with some light mental gymnastics. Just as there’s more than one way to run your mouth, you have plenty of different options to describe what’s going on upstairs.

As with “said”, you don’t always need to get flashy with an outside-the-box verb. Most of the time, “thought” does the job just fine. Still, here are a few brainy alternatives for when you want to get a little more specific:

• Analyze
• Assess
• Brood
• Conceptualize
• Conclude
• Consider
• Contemplate
• Deduce
• Decide
• Deliberate
• Dwell
• Estimate
• Envision
• Evaluate
• Examine
• Fantasize
• Formulate
• Hypothesize
• Judge
• Infer
• Meditate
• Obsess
• Ponder
• Rationalize
• Reason
• Recollect
• Reflect
• Relive
• Speculate
• Suspect
• Theorize
• Weigh
• Wonder

Creating verbs

In the beginning, there was... well, a whole lot more than just "create". Whether your character is building a birdhouse or crafting the next great American novel, bland verbs like "create" tell us zilch about the process, effort, or artistry involved.

“Made” might get the job done, but it's about as exciting as watching paint dry on a rainy Tuesday. When you want to show readers the sweat, skill, and soul that goes into bringing something new into the world, you need verbs with some serious creative muscle:

• Assemble
• Author
• Build
• Carve
• Chisel
• Compose
• Conceive
• Construct
• Craft
• Curate
• Design
• Develop
• Engineer
• Etch
• Erect
• Fashion
• Forge
• Form
• Invent
• Manufacture
• Mold
• Plot
• Sculpt
• Shape
• Sketch
• Stitch

Attacking verbs

Arnold hit the other robot powerfully, who then used his .44 Magnum to shoot him back.

Boo. Hiss. Snooze. In action scenes, your job as a writer is to excite the reader — and for that, you need to quicken the pace of your writing! There’s no time for adjectives or adverbs that lengthen sentences. Pick verbs that evoke the movements, speed, and emotions that you’re looking for. Start here:

• Attack
• Bash
• Batter
• Besiege
• Blast
• Bombard
• Chip
• Chop
• Cleave
• Collide
• Crush
• Demolish
• Dismantle
• Eradicate
• Fight
• Grapple
• Hack
• Lash
• Quash
• Raid
• Ravage
• Rip
• Scorch
• Shatter
• Shock
• Slash
• Smash
• Smite
• Strike
• Struggle
• Tussle
• Wallop
• Wreck
• Wrestle
• Zap
• Zing

Sensing verbs

In films, a lot of storytelling is done through the closeup: a wide shot of a rotting corpse will cut to a close-up of a grizzled detective. He’ll probably have his eyes squinted as he scrutinizes (see what we did there?)  the body and wonders what happened. However, that’s cinema — and books are not quite as visual a medium.

Luckily, a well-deployed verb in context can imply how a character is reacting to something they’re witnessing. So take a peek at these:

• Behold
• Detect
• Discern
• Discover
• Eavesdrop
• Eyeball
• Gawk
• Gaze
• Glare
• Glimpse
• Glower
• Heed
• Inspect
• Locate
• Notice
• Observe
• Peek
• Peer
• Perceive
• Picture
• Pinpoint
• Probe
• Realize
• Regard
• Scan
• Scowl
• Scrutinize
• Sense
• Sniff
• Stare
• Spot
• Scope
• Spy
• Squint
• Survey
• Watch

Standing verbs

Sure, someone might be standing on the street — but what else are they doing? You don’t have to tell us that they’re playing on the phone or thinking about their vacation, but you can give us a better picture of how they’re standing with one of these actions:

• Brace
• Hover
• Huddle
• Lean
• Lurk
• Lounge
• Loiter
• Lodge
• Park
• Perch
• Plant
• Plop
• Position
• Pose
• Rest
• Rise
• Sink
• Sag
• Skulk
• Slouch
• Sprawl
• Settle
• Slump
• Straighten
• Swoon

Eating verbs

The Duchess of Devonshire doesn’t dine in the same way that a soldier in the trenches scoops from his mess tin. Pick the right verbs and you'll have your readers (and characters) eating out of your hand.

• Bite
• Chew
• Chomp
• Devour
• Feast
• Gnaw
• Gobble
• Gorge
• Inhale
• Munch
• Nibble
• Pick
• Sample
• Savor
• Scarf
• Scran
• Slurp
• Sip
• Smack
• Snack
• Swallow
• Taste
• Wolf

Transforming verbs

How do you paint a word-picture of a cute alien who is transmogrifying into a deadly monster? And how can you explain to people what it’s like being on the deck of an aircraft carrier, with its various moving parts?

If you’re shouting, “Verbs! Verbs!” then you’ve been paying attention.

• Absorb
• Alter
• Atomize
• Balloon
• Enlarge
• Erase
• Expand
• Explode
• Heighten
• Intensify
• Magnify
• Melt
• Modify
• Multiply
• Mushroom
• Mutate
• Puff
• Refine
• Revitalize
• Revolutionize
• Rust
• Shrivel
• Snowball
• Supersize
• Swell
• Throb
• Transfigure
• Transform

Shining verbs

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining,” Chekhov once wrote. “Show me the glint of the light on broken glass.” As a tip of the great Russian dramatist and short story maestro, we’ll finish up with some more alternatives for shining.

• Beam
• Dazzle
• Flash
• Flicker
• Gleam
• Glimmer
• Glisten
• Glitter
• Glow
• Radiate
• Shimmer
• Sizzle
• Sparkle
• Twinkle

Well-chosen, powerful verbs are the secret weapons in a wordsmith’s holster. Always remember that using a bog-standard, overused verb is a missed opportunity. Make every word count, and give your readers something they can get lost in.

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Have we missed out on your favorite strong verb? Let us know in the comments below!