IELTS Vocabulary: 500 AWL and Practice

IELTS Vocabulary Groups

500 IELTS Vocabulary

IELTS Vocabulary: 500 AWL

The 500 IELTS vocabulary is so-called AWL (Academic Word List), which was rooted from a popular webpage of HONG KONG Univ. We re-organized it with new definitions and examples. As we know, students should learn at least 5000 IELTS vocabulary before taking academic test. These 500 words cannot replace hardworking of 5000 or more IELTS vocabulary, but is the first step to open the door of building vocabulary efficiently.

Firstly, it is a high frequent word list in IELTS test papers.Two types of students may be interested in the vocabulary.The first is to just start to build vocabulary.They want to get the big picture of IELTS academic vocabulary quickly.The second is in a very narrow time frame to prepare their tests, this list contains the most common words and is a proven short-cut to pass IELTS test.

English is foreign language for most of IELTS test takers.Leverage mother language's knowledge to learn new English words is a normal way for them. This IELTS vocabulary encloses definitions of 20 languages that cover most population of the world. It's a big save for ESL (English as Second Language) students.

In addition to original Chinese explanation of HONG KONG Univ, more local language explanations are appended to help ESL test takers.Open the register form page; you will see there are 20 languages available. Select your mother language; then, IELTS vocabulary will show explanations with English and your mother language together.

Each word in this IELTS academic vocabulary is demonstrated with example sentence, which plays a key part to understand and use new word in right way. Memorize words alone are usually boring, and even if you get them you won’t be very confident to use them.However, if connect a word with an example sentence, the situation will be changed, these words and sentences will enhance your both reading and writing skill.

At last, please notice this AWL is from Hong Kong. It means these words are targeted to IELTS academic test and are for students who live in English speaking areas.Lots of fundamental words are filtered because they are assumed to be known in daily activities.So this IELTS vocabulary may not be an ideal choice for test takers who are in non-English countries.

This IELTS vocabulary is too short to hunt top score. Obviously, high level students need a more powerful vocabulary to work. IELTS Academic Words List, the largest IELTS vocabulary in the website, reflects the essential vocabulary level of IELTS academic test. It's a good option for serious test takers.

IELTS vocabulary is the foundation to pass the test. Before your starting, you should clean all questions, such as how many words to learn, how long to spend, and by what way or tool to study. If you cannot set your goal or doubt your plan, google and research some online resources may help you out, e.g.:

IELTS Official Website
English Language Centre, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

behalf:

/bɪ'hɑrf/ n. Syn. represent
represent; advantage, benefit, interest of someone
And I'm going to work to assure that that voice that is heard on their behalf is a roar and not a whisper.

bias:

/'baɪəs/ n. Syn. prejudice; preference
preference or inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment; influence in unfair way
Now that I can daily watch their news reports on Star Choice, I can tell you that the bias is as deep there as anywhere.

brief:

/bri:f/ a.
short in time, duration, length, or extent; concise
When my brief career as a pop star ended, I found I had done fairly well.

capable:

/'keɪpəb(ə)l/ a. Syn. competent
having the ability required for a specific task
Canadian politicians have been in capable of ending this primitive practice.

category:

/'kætɪgərɪ/ n. Syn. group
group; class; collection of things sharing a common attribute
Remember, all cars are priced, booked and controlled by car category, not by car maker or model.

challenge:

/'tʃælɪndʒ/ v.
assert a right; raise a formal objection; take exception to
Nowadays no one will challenge the fact that the earth is round.

Vocabulary List - View all words by list

Select Vocabulary List:
1 2 3 4 5

Words of List 2 (Part of words, select list to view all.):

concept

conclude

concurrent

conduct

confer

confine

confirm

conflict

conform

consent

consequent

considerable

consist

constant

constitute

constrain

construct

consult

consume

contact

contemporary

context

contract

contradict

contrary

contrast

contribute

controversy

convene

converse

convert

convince

cooperate

coordinate

core

corporate

correspond

couple

create

credit

criteria

crucial

culture

currency

cycle

data

debate

decade

decline

deduce

define

definite

demonstrate

denote

deny

depress

derive

design

despite

detect

deviate

device

devote

differentiate

dimension

diminish

discrete

discriminate

displace

display

dispose

distinct

distort

distribute

diverse

document

domain

domestic

dominate

draft

drama

duration

dynamic

economy

edit

element

eliminate

emerge

emphasis

empirical

enable

encounter

energy

enforce

enhance

enormous

ensure

entity

environment

equate

equip

equivalent

erode

establish

estate

estimate

ethic

ethnic

...

Word Meaning Matching - Test how many words you know

academy

	have a beginning or origin; originate; start; begin
	school for special instruction; society of scholars, scientists, or artists
	make fit for; change to suit a new purpose
	fellow worker; associate; co-worker

adapt

	group; class; collection of things sharing a common attribute
	division of a book or treatise; assembly of monks; bishop's council; organized branch of some society
	adjoining; neighboring; close to; lying near
	make fit for; change to suit a new purpose

adjust

	declare to be true or admit; express obligation, thanks
	preference or inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment; influence in unfair way
	adapt; regulate
	society; a group of people living in the same locality and under the same government

alternative

	school for special instruction; society of scholars, scientists, or artists
	one of two or more things, ideas or courses of action that may be used; option; choice
	fellow worker; associate; co-worker
	acquire; take possession of for one's own use; set apart for specific use

amend

	adapt; regulate
	fellow worker; associate; co-worker
	change for the better; improve; remove faults or errors
	quote; adduce as an instance

analogy

	similarity in some respects; comparison based on similarity
	short in time, duration, length, or extent; concise
	complete; consummate; make perfect
	fasten; annex; be in contact with

appropriate

	adjoining; neighboring; close to; lying near
	approach; entry; entrance
	acquire; take possession of for one's own use; set apart for specific use
	occurring or payable every year

arbitrary

	preference or inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment; influence in unfair way
	randomly chosen; determined by chance or impulse, and not by reason or principle
	group; class; collection of things sharing a common attribute
	one who has attained maturity or legal age; fully grown

area

	fee for services; group of people appointed to find out about something; authorize
	plane surface, as of the floor of a room; open space in a building; the enclosed space; extent; scope; range
	convenient for use or disposal; not busy, free; obtainable; accessible
	preference or inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment; influence in unfair way

capacity

	mental or physical ability; ability to accommodate
	approach; come near
	one who has attained maturity or legal age; fully grown
	change for the better; improve; remove faults or errors

Interactive Spelling - Check your spelling skill online

[Esc]
/ə'tʃi:v/ v. Syn. accomplish; fulfill
gain with effort; accomplish; fulfill
Water, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity, require the world's scientific community to come up with the means to [___] sustainable development.

[Esc]
/ə'dæpt/ v. Syn. alter; modify
make fit for; change to suit a new purpose
One way to [___] is to become smaller, generation by generation.

[Esc]
/'ædvəkət/ v. Syn. urge; support
speak, plead, or argue in favour of; plead for; push for something
The some doctors [___] a smoking ban in the entire house.

[Esc]
/æm'bɪgjʊəs/ a.
unclear or doubtful in meaning
His [___] instructions misled us; we did not know which road to take.

[Esc]
/ə'mɛnd/ v. Syn. correct; improve
change for the better; improve; remove faults or errors
Would McCain [___] executive orders to ensure that communications between persons outside government and White House staff are disclosed to the public?

[Esc]
/ə'nælədʒɪ/ n. Syn. similarity; parallelism
similarity in some respects; comparison based on similarity
This [___] is almost always noted without further comment, although in fact it may be taken further.

[Esc]
/ə'proʊprɪət/ v. Syn. acquire; allocate
acquire; take possession of for one's own use; set apart for specific use
The ranch owners [___] the lands that have originally been set aside for the Indians' use.

[Esc]
/ə'sɛmb(ə)l/ v. Syn. gather
put together; bring or call together into a group or whole
Washington announced its decision to dissolve the core group of nations, the US, India, Japan and Australia, it would [___] to deliver aid.

[Esc]
/ə'trɪbju:t/ n. Syn. trait
essential quality; reputation; honor
His outstanding [___] was his kindness.

[Esc]
/'bɛnɪfɪt/ n. Syn. welfare; gain
advantage; something that aids or promotes well-being ; welfare; gain
Another [___] for business is the elimination of currency risk in the Euro area - the possibility that you might lose money in cross border trade because of exchange rate movements.