24 Compound Adjectives to Describe a Person

24 Compound Adjectives to Describe a Person (with Meanings & Examples)

When we describe people in English, many learners rely on the same safe words again and again: nice, kind, bad, interesting, difficult. There’s nothing wrong with them… but they don’t say very much.

Native speakers, on the other hand, often use compound adjectives to describe personality, character, and appearance in a much more precise and colourful way:

• She’s very open-minded.
• He’s incredibly hard-working but also a bit thin-skinned.
• They’re relaxed and easy-going.

In this lesson, you will learn 24 extremely useful compound adjectives to describe a person, all with clear meanings and natural example sentences. These are perfect for everyday conversation, describing people in writing, Cambridge exams (B2 First, C1 Advanced) as well as stories, reviews, and character descriptions.

What is a compound adjective?

A compound adjective is made up of two (sometimes three) words, usually connected with a hyphen, and used together as one adjective.

• a hard-working student
• a well-dressed man
• a strong-willed woman

They help you say more with fewer words — and sound much more natural and precise.

24 useful compound adjectives to describe people

Let’s look at some of the most common and practical ones.

Absent-minded

Meaning: often forgetting things or not paying attention.

• Professors are often caricatured as absent-minded people who forget where they left their glasses.

Bad-tempered

Meaning: easily annoyed or angry.

• Fiona can be very bad-tempered when she’s hungry or tired.

Big-headed

Meaning: thinking you are more important or clever than you really are.

• He became quite big-headed after his first big success.

Big-hearted

Meaning: kind and generous.

• Sid has always been big-hearted, especially when it comes to helping children.

Broad-shouldered

Meaning: having wide, strong shoulders.

• She described her father as a tall, broad-shouldered man.

Easy-going

Meaning: relaxed, calm, and not easily upset.

• Rebecca is easy-going and gets on well with almost everyone.

Good-natured

Meaning: kind, friendly, and pleasant.

• He was a good-natured man who rarely complained about anything.

Hard-working

Meaning: always putting a lot of effort into your work.

• Everyone remembers her as a hard-working and ambitious student.

Laid-back

Meaning: very relaxed and calm about life.

• Her boss is surprisingly laid-back, even in stressful situations.

Level-headed

Meaning: calm, sensible, and able to make good decisions.

• What we need is a responsible, level-headed person to lead the team.

Light-hearted

Meaning: cheerful, not serious or worried.

• The film is light-hearted and perfect for a relaxed evening.

Narrow-minded

Meaning: not willing to accept other people’s ideas or ways of life.

• He grew up in a very narrow-minded environment and never questioned it.

Open-minded

Meaning: willing to accept new ideas and different opinions.

• Her parents are open-minded and always happy to listen to other points of view.

Quick-thinking

Meaning: able to react and make decisions quickly.

• We’re looking for a quick-thinking person who can solve problems under pressure.

Self-centred

Meaning: only thinking about yourself and your own needs.

• He became more self-centred after he started earning a lot of money.

Short-tempered

Meaning: getting angry very easily.

• He’s brilliant, but unfortunately a bit short-tempered.

Simple-minded

Meaning: understanding things in a very simple or limited way.

• She’s kind, but sometimes a bit simple-minded and too trusting.

Single-minded

Meaning: completely focused on one goal.

• She was single-minded in her determination to succeed.

Strong-willed

Meaning: very determined and not easily influenced.

• He’s strong-willed, and once he decides something, nothing can stop him.

Thin-skinned

Meaning: very sensitive and easily offended.

• If you work in politics, you can’t afford to be thin-skinned.

Tight-fisted

Meaning: not generous with money; very careful or stingy.

• He never offers to pay — he’s far too tight-fisted.

Two-faced

Meaning: not sincere; saying one thing but meaning another.

• Nobody trusted her because she was two-faced and dishonest.

Well-dressed

Meaning: wearing stylish and appropriate clothes.

• The photo showed a well-dressed woman in her thirties.

Well-behaved

Meaning: polite and behaving properly.

• The children were quiet, respectful, and very well-behaved.

Why these are perfect for Cambridge exams

Compound adjectives are excellent for describing people in Speaking Part 2 / 3, writing stories, reviews, and articles and making your language sound more natural and more precise.

Instead of:

He is nice and works a lot.

You can say:

He’s a hard-working, easy-going person.

Much better. Much more native-like.

Final thought

Learning compound adjectives is like upgrading from black-and-white to colour.

Your descriptions become clearer, richer, and more alive.

Try to use one or two of these the next time you talk or write about someone — and you’ll immediately hear the difference.

Download the exercise worksheet for adjectives to describe a person in PDF here

Learn 90 adjectives to describe people’s character here

Find 18 nouns that describe people’s character here

Learn 25 collocations that describe personality here

Learn 10 idioms that describe people here