(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon.)

Why Are Faces Important?

St. Jerome said that the face is the mirror of the mind. It’s usually the first thing people notice when they meet someone, and is often the body feature they rely on to make snap judgments.

That raises the question Pablo Picasso posed: “Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?”

Picasso forgot poets and writers.

This post provides more than 500 ways for wordcrafters to depict faces.

Exploit Facial Shapes to Augment Personalities

Characters’ faces can mirror their minds and temperaments.

Someone with a blocky or cubic face might be a stubborn conservative. Flatness might indicate a bore. Irregular features could hint at a nonconformist.

Here are a few shape adjectives to get you started:

B to W
blocky, box-shaped, broad, cube-shaped, cubic, diamond-shaped, egg-shaped, expansive, flat, hatchet-faced, heart-shaped, irregular, long, marshmallow-shaped, moon-round, narrow, oblong, oval, pumpkinesque, pyramid-shaped, rectangular, round, square, triangle-shaped, triangular, wide

Colors: Another Tool in the Wordcrafter’s Creativity Palette

The following are just a few of the many colors that lend depth to characters:

A to Y
albino, anemic, blanched, bloodless, bluish, brown, cadaverous, colorless, crimson, dark, faded, fair, florid, flushed, freckled, green (because of nausea, perhaps), grey, olive, pale, pallid, pasty, pink, purple, red, reddened, rosy, rouged, rubicund, ruddy, sallow, scarlet, scorched, sooty, sunburnt, swarthy, tanned, tawny, wan, waxen, white, yellow

See also 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors.

Animal Adjectives Build on Pre-Conceived Perceptions

A miser might be ferret-faced, whereas a glutton could be described as hoggish or hog-jowled. The face of a CEO whose company practices unscrupulous business tactics might be labelled vulturish, while her sycophant assistant is identified by his toady or toad-faced features.

Study this mini-list, and then develop your own unforgettable descriptors.

B to W
bestial, bulldoggish, canine, feline, ferret-faced, frog-faced, hawkish, hoggish, hog-jowled, horse-faced, horsey, leonine, rat-nosed, ratty, reptilian, simian, toad-faced, toady, vulpine, vulturish, weasel-faced

Opinion Adjectives Excel for Flash Fiction or Action Scenes

Opinion adjectives reduce word count by telling rather than showing. A point-of-view character might describe someone’s face as gloomy. However, gloomy is a judgment based on the POV character’s opinion. Perhaps the person being described is in fact thoughtful or perplexed.

Select these words with care, opting to show instead of tell when circumstances permit.

A and B
alcoholic, alert, aloof, amiable, angelic, angry, anguished, anorexic, anxious, aristocratic, austere, beautiful, bemused, benevolent, benignant, bland, blank, bloody, bold, brave, brazen

C
calm, candid, charming, cheerful, cheery, cherubic, childlike, clever, common, commonplace, confused, contemptuous, cool, crafty, crooked, cultured, cunning, curious, cynical

D and E
dazed, dead, deceptive, demonic, dependable, despairing, dishonest, distraught, dour, downcast, drunken, dubious, eager, effeminate, empty, enthusiastic, evil, expectant

F and G
false, fierce, foolish, frank, friendly, frightened, frosty, funny, gentle, glamorous, gloomy, good-humored, good-natured, grave, grim, grotesque, guileless

H and I
haggard, haggish, happy, haughty, haunting, healthy, hideous, homely, honest, impassioned, imposing, imperturbable, infantile, innocent, inscrutable, insipid, intellectual, intelligent, inviting, ironic

J to O
jovial, judgmental, livid, malevolent, mawkish, meek, merry, miserly, Neanderthal, obnoxious, obtuse, odious, odd, open, optimistic, ordinary

P to R
pained, pampered, passive, pathetic, peaked, peculiar, pious, piteous, plain, pleasant, predatory, prim, pugnacious, puritanical, repellent, resolute, rested, revolting, rueful

S
sad, sanguine, sarcastic, sardonic, satanic, saturnine, saucy, savage, scornful, seamy, sensitive, sensual, serene, serious, severe, shifty, shrewd, sinister, slow-witted, smug, snobbish, solemn, sour, spiritual, stern, stingy, steady, stormy, strange, stubborn, stupid, sunny, supercilious, suspicious, sweet

T to W
tense, tired, troubled, ugly, unfamiliar, unfortunate, unpleasant, unsavory, vacuous, weak, weary, wholesome, wicked, wise, wry

More Adjectives for Well-Rounded Character Descriptions

Exercise caution with clichés such as baby-faced and chiseled. Although they might be suitable for dialogue or certain narrators, editors often red-pencil them.

A and B
acned, ageless, animated, baby-faced, baby-smooth, bearded, beardless, beefy, blemished, bloated, blotchy, bony, Botoxed, boyish, bright, bright-eyed, broken-nosed, bruised, bumpy, burnished

C and D
careworn, chinless, chiseled, chubby, clean-shaven, clear, contorted, craggy, crinkled, deadpan, delicate, dimpled, dimple-plump, dirty, dull

E and F
elegant, elfin, emaciated, emotionless, expressionless, expressive, familiar, famous, fat, feverish, fiery, fine, fine-boned, firm, flabby, flaccid, fleshy, fresh, full, furrowed, furry

G to M
gaunt, gnarled, grizzled, grubby, hairless, hairy, hirsute, hollow, hot, immobile, impassive, lantern-jawed, lean, leathery, lived-in, lumpy, made-up, massive, matte, motionless, mud-spattered, mustachioed

P to R
pendulous, pert, perspiring, pimpled, pinched, placid, plastic, plump, pockmarked, poker-faced, powdered, pox-ravaged, puffy, puny, radiant, rawboned, refined, rigid, rotund, rough, rough-hewn, rugged

S
scarred, scrunched, sculpted, seamed, seamless, shaved, shaven, shiny, silicone-pumped, skeletal, skinny, slack, small, smooth, smudged, smushed, soft, splotchy, spotted, spotty, stained, stolid, stony, stretched, strong, sunken, sweaty, swollen

T to Y
taut, thin, tight-lipped, timeless, transparent, unemotional, unlined, unreadable, unshaven, unwashed, veined, warty, watchful, weather-beaten, wet, whiskered, wide-eyed, windburnt, withered, wrinkled, youthful

Props Enhance Facial Descriptions

Props add dimension you won’t find with many descriptors. However, an overabundance will weaken writing. Try to stick with one or two.

A to W
acne, aftershave, beards, beauty marks, bindis, blemishes, cigars, cigarettes, drinking straws (hanging out one corner of the mouth, perhaps), eyebrow-pencil marks, eyeglasses, fake lashes, freckles, keratoses, lack of eyebrows, lipstick, liver spots, mascara, mustaches, moles, nose rings, piercings, pimples, pipes, perfume, rouge, scars, sideburns, tattooed eyebrows, tattoos, teeth, toothpicks, warts

Surrogate Nouns Offer Another Avenue for Creativity

Words that might replace face in narrative include:

C to V
countenance, expression, façade, features, kisser, mask, mien, mug, muzzle, phiz, phizzog, profile, puss, visage

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs (1): Transitive

Faces react to both internal and external stimuli. They might:

B to S
brighten with, burn with, cloud over with, darken with, flame with, flush with, glisten with, glow (in, with), light up, pucker into, ogle, shine (in with), shrivel into

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs (2): Intransitive

Faces don’t smile or frown — people do. However, the following verbs show emotion. Characters might:

B to Y
beam, blink, cry, frown, glower, grin, laugh, leer, lour, moue, pout, scowl, simper, smile, smirk, sneer, squint, stare, weep, wink, yawn

… and so forth.

These words provide an opportunity to describe how faces look while their features react to emotion.

Similes, in Moderation, Merit Consideration

Faces can be compared to or with:

• a __________’s butt
• a baby doll
• a bad dream
• a brewing storm
• a bruised peach
• a camel’s puss
• a da Vinci portrait
• a movie star’s glam close-up
• a mud pie
• a nightmare
• a pancake
• a prune
• a sunny day
• a tree trunk
• afterbirth
• alabaster
• an aging rock star’s kisser
• an anchovy pizza
• an overripe tomato
• an unmade bed
• bubbling spaghetti sauce
• death
• dog vomit
• fine china
• hamburger
• liver
• porcelain
• raw meat
• raw sewage
• roadkill
• smooth chocolate
• the back end of __________
• the loser of a dog fight
• thunder
• translucent parchment
• vanilla custard

See also:

300+ Words to Describe Skin
400+ Ways to Describe Eyes
Other Ways to Say Roll the Eyes
200+ Ways to Say Frown or Scowl
99 Ways to Say Laughed or Smiled
100+ Ways to Say Cried
120 Ways to Say Pout
50 Alternatives for Wink in Writing
100+ Ways to Say Blush