Words can have positive, negative, or neutral connotations. In a sentence, the feeling the reader gets can change when a word with a positive connotation is replaced with a word with a negative connotation.
Here are examples of words with positive/neutral and negative connotations used in the same sentence. Notice how they change the meaning of the sentence.
| Positive/Neutral Connotation |
Negative Connotation |
| The football team beat their rivals. |
The football team dominated their rivals. |
| He could smell the aroma of the brownies. |
He could smell the stink of the brownies. |
| Those earrings look inexpensive. |
Those earrings look cheap. |
8th Grade Reading - Connotative Meanings Lesson