Best List Of Vocabulary for IELTS With Meaning (2022) (2023)

IELTS, also referred to as the International English Language Testing System, is an English language proficiency test. Students who want to go abroad for their higher studies or for work must take this test. The most popular English language test is IELTS. It has two types, one is academics ( for study visa ), and other is general training ( for work permit or PR ).

In IELTS, vocabulary plays a very important role. You can score 7 to 8 bands easily in IELTS if you have the right knowledge of vocabulary. There is different vocabulary for IELTS for each section.

In the upcoming paragraph, we will get the list of IELTS vocabulary for writing, reading, listening, and speaking. This post will help you become familiar with some new and difficult words.

But, before reading the list of IELTS vocabulary, you must know why vocabulary is needed in IELTS.

Why is vocabulary important for IELTS?

IELTS consists of four modules: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. The only and most important thing that all these sections have in common is vocabulary. In writing and speaking, vocabulary even contributes to around 25% of your score. Vocabulary also helps in reading and listening as it increases the knowledge of synonyms.

Section-wise vocabulary for IELTS (Academics)

You will get the proper list of the latest IELTS vocabulary for listening, reading, writing, and speaking. There are two types of IELTS IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training. In this blog, if you don’t know about both, then you can read our blog about IELTS Academic vs General. you will definitely understand about the IELTS academic vs general. So, let’s start to learn vocabulary.

Vocabulary for IELTS writing

IELTS writing vocabulary means the words we use in the writing section of IELTS. Vocabulary plays an important role in writing and helps the reader understand the text. For a reader, it is difficult to understand any text without knowing what most of the commonly used words mean.

You will get 1 hour for this section of IELTS. In IELTS writing, there are two tasks,

Task 1 : In this task, you have given data in the form of a graph, table, or map. You have to write around 150 words for this task after analyzing the data given.

Task 2 : In this task, you have to write around 250 words. You have given a general question. It can be problematic, an opinion, agree or disagree, or the examiner can ask you a direct question.

Let’s see the vocabulary for the IELTS writing list:

Vocabulary for Task 1

Vocabularies for an upward trend

1. Soar

Example – The use of electricity soared last month.

Soar is used to show a large rise.

2. Rocket

Example – Use of mobile phones has rocketed in the last five months.

Just like soar, rockets are used for showing a large rise.

3. Surge

Example – People’s interest in electronic gadgets has been surging.

Vocabularies for a downward trend

1. Slip back

Example – Use of telephones has slipped back in the past 10 years.

This is used when there is a fall after having a rise.

2. Sink

Example – The housing cost sank after the corona pandemic.

3. Dip

Example – The crime rate has dipped in the past few years.

Adjective vocabs for showing a steady trend

Adjective vocabs for showing a small increase or decrease trend

Vocabulary for Task 2

1. Vocabulary for showing contrast:

• On the other hand,
• While,
• Whereas,
• On the contrary,
• Even though,
• Alternatively,
• Unlike,
• Though,
• Although,
• Despite,
• Meanwhile,
• Oppositely,
• Nevertheless,
• Nonetheless,
• However,

These are the vocabularies for IELTS you can use if you want to show the contradiction.

2. Vocabulary to present an idea:

• When it comes to…
• Not only… but also..
• Research shows that…
• With respect to…
• Research has found that…

Examples : Research shows that unemployment and crime are interrelated.

When it comes to teaching moral values to children, parents always come first, but teachers are also equally responsible for that.

3. Phrases to explain more ideas:

• Furthermore,
• Apart from this,
• Another point worth noticing is,
• Another factor to consider is,
• In addition,
• Also,
• Besides,
• Not only… but also …

4. Vocabulary for IELTS to show a result, effect, or consequence:

• The reason why
• Therefore,
• Eventually,
• On account of…
• Because of…
• Hence,
• As a result,
• Consequently,
• As a consequence,
• Owing to,
• Due to,
• As an effect,
• Thus,

5. Vocabulary for IELTS writing task 2 conclusion:

• To recapitulate,
• To conclude,
• To sum up,
• In a nutshell,
• To summarize,

6. Some expressions you may have been writing wrong:

If you want to learn some tips for improving your IELTS writing, you can read our other “Best 8 Tips On How To Improve Writing In IELTS.”

Vocabulary for IELTS speaking

Speaking is an important and scorable module of IELTS. The duration of speaking tests is approximately 10 to 15 minutes. It has three parts:

Introduction : In this exam, the examiner will ask you some introductory questions about yourself. For example, do you love flowers? Do you enjoy music? In this, you can give an answer in one or two lines.

Cue Card : This examiner will give you a topic, and you have to speak for at least 1:30 to 2 minutes.

Follow Up : In this part, the examiner will ask you questions related to your cue card or some general topics, and you have to give an answer in at least 3 to 4 lines.

Let’s move to the list of vocabulary for IELTS speaking.

1. pastime

Meaning – an activity done for enjoyment

Example – Cricket is my favorite pastime.

2. itinerary

Meaning- a formally planned trip,

Example – My boss planned an itinerary for a trip to Shimla for all employees.

3. abroad

Meaning – outside of one’s home country

Example – I want to go abroad for further studies.

4. major

Meaning – a chosen field of study

Example – In senior high school, Ram’s majors were physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

5. primary

Meaning – the beginning grade levels of school

Example – Miss Babita was my favorite teacher in primary school.

Some other important vocabulary for speaking in IELTS

• Suburb – a town near the big city
• Night out – a night spend outside the house at a public place
• Chilly – referring to the weather, means cold and uncomfortable weather
• Casual – when referring to friends, means someone you don’t know properly
• Arid – a dry climate, with no or little rain
• Chain restaurant – a restaurant with branches at different locations.
• Ingredients – things that you combine to make a certain dish
• Innovation – new and valuable invention

Vocabulary for IELTS reading

In the reading section of the IELTS, knowledge of vocabulary helps you in skimming and scanning. If you have knowledge of different vocabulary, then you won’t get stuck while skimming, and you will save your valuable time. The duration of the reading section is 1 hour.

Without wasting time, let’s have a look at the important vocabulary for reading.

• Erosion – when sand is removed from the earth’s surface with water or air.
• Habitat – A place where you find a certain animal, plant, or other living creature.
• Emissions – when a gas or smoke gets released into the air.
• Flora and fauna – It means plants and animals.
• Mammal – animals which have warm blood and fur on their body.
• Reptiles – Animals that have cold blood and no hair or fur on their bodies, such as turtles, lizards, and snakes.
• Evolve – when something changes or develops itself.
• Sustainable – sustainable activity is that which doesn’t damage the environment.

Vocabulary for IELTS listening

In this section, you will listen to a recording for 30 minutes and have to answer 40 questions by listening to that recording. You will get an additional 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.

Let’s have a view on the useful vocabulary for IELTS listening.

• Tutorial – student teacher discussion when the tutor is giving instruction to students.
• Office hours – The time you spend in the office.
• Counselor – Who consults you and takes your counseling sessions.
• Sibling – a brother or sister.
• Spouse – a husband or wife.
• In-laws – relatives of your spouse.
• High rise – tall buildings mostly at the town center.
• Main square – small and central area of the city center.
• Accommodation – place where anyone lives.

IELTS Vocabulary Tips

After reading the important section-wise vocabulary for IELTS, you should also know some tips which can help you to remember IELTS vocabulary easily.

So, now without wasting more time, let’s move to some essential IELTS vocabulary tips.

Get a notebook

There is evidence that if you write something by your hand, the chances that you will remember that thing longer is high.

So it is essential to write down any new word you hear. Later, you can search for that word to find its meaning and example.

Get a dictionary

You can buy a dictionary from the bookstore to find new words and synonyms. You can also download the dictionary app from the playstore on your mobile.

One of the most important benefits of a dictionary app is that in some apps, there is an option which allows you to hear the pronunciation of the word after submitting the word.

So whenever you encounter a new word, then first write it down and later search for its meaning and uses in a dictionary.

Learn synonyms

In IELTS, your band score will get affected if you repeat any word a lot. It sometimes happens that you have to write a word again and again because it is the demand of the question.

In that case, to avoid repetition, you can use a synonym of the word. By this, you can avoid repetition, and along with that, you will get a new vocabulary.

Write words in sentences

Whenever you hear new words, don’t try to memorise the words instead, always try to use words in different sentences. By doing this, you can remember the word easily.

Always try to use words in simple sentences and try to memorise the words by repeating the sentences. You must repeat the sentence unless or until it comes to your mind automatically.

Ask someone to test you

Get help from someone who has a vast knowledge of using vocabulary. You can take online help by hiring an online tutor, or you can take help from a friend or an English teacher.

It is very important to take help from an expert because there is no benefit to using vocabulary if you are using it wrong.

Because a word has many synonyms, we can’t use all those synonyms in every place. For example, clear has a synonym lucid and let’s use clear and lucid in the same sentence one by one.

Clear = this graph clearly shows

Lucid = this graph lucidly shows

In this, the use of lucidly is wrong. So when you are learning vocabulary for IELTS, it is very important to understand its meaning and usage.

Record yourself

Make it a habit always to record yourself. When you record yourself, then you can practice the vocabulary for speaking.

As in speaking, only knowledge of vocabulary and its meaning won’t help you, you should also know the exact pronunciation.

If you can’t pronounce the word properly, then the word is of no use. Also, by recording yourself and listening to that word, again and again, you can easily memorise the word.

If you find it difficult to calculate your IELTS overall score, our blog “How to calculate IELTS score: Everything you should know” can help you with this.

Final words

In this post, we have discussed the section-wise vocabulary for IELTS. This will help you to improve your band score in each section, as well as improve your overall band score. Along with the vocabulary, their meaning and examples are also given, which will make it easy for you to understand these tough words.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this post about the IELTS vocabulary. Keep visiting our website for more interesting posts like this.

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