“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”

This is the advice Robin Williams had for his classroom full of bright-eyed boys in Dead Poet’s Society , and we can’t help but yell touché to that!

So we’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of words that can effectively replace the much dreaded ‘very’, and make your conversations better enriched. Because laziness just isn’t an option.