FUL adjective suffix – English Grammar Profiler
Here are the most common adjectives ending in -ful found in the NOW corpus:
*Note, 60% of them are not included in the English Vocabulary Profile.
The twelve most common adjectives that end with the suffix -ful all have positive meanings:
1 SUCCESSFUL 1589851 2 POWERFUL 1151163 3 BEAUTIFUL 1091675 4 WONDERFUL 595077 5 USEFUL 545881 6 GRATEFUL 439808 7 RESPECTFUL 432870 8 PEACEFUL 412401 9 MEANINGFUL 377815 10 CAREFUL 359182 11 HELPFUL 318192
12 HOPEFUL 287559
13 PAINFUL 257241
14 UNLAWFUL 219238
Interesting that ‘unlawful‘ is more than 3 times more common than ‘lawful.’
This is also the most common unlisted adjective in the EVP.
We call it C2 regardless.
I want to propose that this meeting is unlawful.
listen
15 HARMFUL 213375 16 AWFUL 178704
17 TRUTHFUL 165839
I‘ve tried to be truthful with you.
listen
18 THOUGHTFUL 149557 19 THANKFUL 146755 20 FAITHFUL 130342 21 COLOURFUL 125423 22 INSIGHTFUL 120528 23 STRESSFUL 112896 24 MINDFUL 103568 25 UNSUCCESSFUL 96038 26 COLORFUL 88245
27 HATEFUL 80503
28 LAWFUL 69813
29 FEARFUL 69020 30 SHAMEFUL 68566 31 DELIGHTFUL 67761 32 YOUTHFUL 66663 33 IMPACTFUL 64680 34 PLAYFUL 62683 35 DREADFUL 48577 36 DOUBTFUL 47398 37 DISRESPECTFUL 47107 38 FRUITFUL 46146 39 RIGHTFUL 44470 40 WRONGFUL 42274 41 JOYFUL 42211 42 DISGRACEFUL 38041 43 FATEFUL 37270 44 CHEERFUL 36285 45 WASTEFUL 35286 46 FORCEFUL 34841 47 PLENTIFUL 32622 48 HURTFUL 28692 49 PURPOSEFUL 28300 50 WATCHFUL 27498 51 EVENTFUL 24622 52 SOULFUL 24258 53 MASTERFUL 23569 54 GRACEFUL 23279 55 RESOURCEFUL 22743 56 TEARFUL 21713 57 WOEFUL 19848 58 WISHFUL 19568 59 UNHELPFUL 19100 60 WILLFUL 16709 61 WILFUL 16556 62 SKILFUL 15319 63 NEEDFUL 14790 64 REMORSEFUL 14069 65 FANCIFUL 13911 66 SKILLFUL 12965 67 BLISSFUL 12643 68 DISTASTEFUL 12268 69 VENGEFUL 12129 70 BOUNTIFUL 11610 71 SINFUL 11420 72 PITIFUL 11009 73 ARTFUL 10777 74 FLAVORFUL 10593 75 DECEITFUL 10348 76 TASTEFUL 10177 77 RESENTFUL 10142 78 ALL-POWERFUL 10123 79 UNFAITHFUL 9099 80 MERCIFUL 8809 81 UNGRATEFUL 8744 82 WISTFUL 8676 83 UNEVENTFUL 8556 84 RESTFUL 7362 85 GAINFUL 7036 86 GLEEFUL 7002 87 MOURNFUL 6852 88 DUTIFUL 6665 89 FLAVOURFUL 6654 90 SUSPENSEFUL 6493 91 SPITEFUL 6256 92 HEALTHFUL 5585 93 SORROWFUL 5494 94 REGRETFUL 5373 95 FORGETFUL 5357 96 PRAYERFUL 4736 97 DISTRUSTFUL 4615 98 BOASTFUL 4304 99 TAKAFUL 4127
100 FRIGHTFUL 4059
Listed at C2:
disrespectful, eventful, fearful, forceful, merciful, pitiful, resourceful, tasteful, uneventful