Synonyms For “Say” or “Said”

For narrative writing, sometimes you want to use a verb other than “he says” or “she said.” This is a cheatsheet to help you break out of that rut.

Variation Possibilities
Explanatory answered, acknowledged, explained, proposed,
replied, responded, retorted
Tone: Anger fumed, raged, scolded, shrieked, shouted
Tone: Argumentative/Oppositional argued, contended, countered, cried out, demanded, dictated,
emphasized, insisted, maintained, ordered, preached, proclaimed
Tone: Happy giggled, joked, laughed
Tone: Sad agonized, cried, mourned, screamed, sobbed, wept
Tone: Suggestive hinted, implied, insinuated, intimated, suggested
Tone: Tired/Pleading begged, implored, mumbled, murmured, muttered, pleaded, whispered
Tone: Understanding accepted, agreed, empathized, sympathized
Tone: Miscellaneous cackled, drawled, exclaimed

9 thoughts on “Synonyms For “Say” or “Said””

  5. What a useful list. Thankyou. May I add – cautioned, yelled, roared, allowed (agreement) tittered, chuckled, hissed, growled. I’ve seen ‘empathised’ in books but that’s not strictly accurate as empathy is the ability to *feel* what someone else is feeling and often used quite wrongly.

    You can sympathise, as that is understanding, but not empathise. :)

    Also, to any budding writers, there are many words which even experienced writers use wrong (and get them past lazy editors! ) One is “prone” – if a person is lying prone, they are face down (look it up in the dictionary is my rule) this leads to hilarious visual situations such as when someone is ‘lying prone and gazing at the stars’ !! The other word which really annoys is ‘brackish” this is a mixture of salt and fresh water, as one might find in an estuary, it does NOT mean dirty water, as is so often implied.
    The other important thing is to make your clauses agree. To write, “Driving in to work, a tree fell on Mary’s car” means the tree was driving. :)
    ‘Driving in to work, Mary’s car was hit by a tree’ – is better

    “She was so tired she jumped into the bed in her underclothes” recently caused me to laugh out loud.

    The rule here is to ask yourself “what or who is that first clause about?” The 2nd clause should be about that too.

  9. Thanks a lot for these ! :] Rachelle is just stupid and ignorant. She won’t get far in life with her attitude.