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Is there an accepted name for words such as 'Huge' which means 'very big' and 'Tiny' which means 'very small'? Is there a good textbook with some exercises on learning this sort of vocab?

Edit: I am a teacher and am looking for exercises on this topic. But I don't know what to search for online, or what to look for in the appendix. I want to improve the student's vocabulary specifically for adjectives.

Edit: I am not looking to explain he linguistic phenomenon of why things are rarely 'very tiny'. I am looking for a name for the class of words which mean 'very _______'. Strong adjectives has been suggested and will be accepted as an answer if it is presented as an answer, and not a comment, and there is some indication that this is the accepted term and is widely-used by people other than the designer of those problem sheets.

Daron
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  • They are adjectives, just like big and small. There are many words that mean "big" or "small" to some extent or another. Big, huge, enormous, gigantic, massive, etc. It just comes down to enlarging your general vocabulary. As for resources I always recommend reading. Reading novels or newspapers is a great way to expand you vocabulary and to get used to the context in which words may have slightly different meanings. – oerkelens Aug 12 '17 at 15:09
  • Not general vocabulary -- vocabulary specifically related to stronger or weaker versions of common adjectives. What is the terminology for this? – Daron Aug 12 '17 at 15:53
  • @oerkelens: tiny means very small, while huge means very big. There are a number of pairs in English like that. For example, glacial means very slow, while breakneck and whirlwind mean very fast. I would assume that the OP is asking for a word for the kind of adjective these are. – Peter Shor Aug 12 '17 at 15:55
  • That's the idea. – Daron Aug 12 '17 at 16:39
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    Possible duplicate of Why are things often "very tasty", but rarely "very delicious" – Mari-Lou A Aug 12 '17 at 18:24
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it lacks signs of any research even when links are kindly provided. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 12 '17 at 21:47
  • Obviously, they are four-letter words. – Hot Licks Aug 13 '17 at 12:36
  • I self-deleted my comments. You should accept de Bernardy's answer. – Mari-Lou A Aug 14 '17 at 02:04

1 Answers1

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They're called strong adjectives.

Base adjectives

Base adjectives are normal adjectives that don't have the idea of 'very'

Strong adjectives

Strong adjectives, however, are extreme adjectives that have the idea of 'very'

Examples

gorgeous = very beautiful

huge = very big

Community
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Denis de Bernardy
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