IELTS Vocabulary Tips and WordLists

Vocabulary plays quite an important role in the IELTS Exam. IELTS vocabulary constitutes 25% of your marks in the Speaking & Writing Section and helps a lot in the Reading & listening sections. Hence, knowing IELTS vocabulary tips and wordlists are going to enhance your IELTS score.

Having good Vocabulary in IELTS Reading & Listening tests, makes it easy to get our answers correct & having a wider range of vocabulary helps you not only understand the question, but also locate the answers through skimming and scanning, using synonyms and connect the contexts better.

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Why is vocabulary important in IELTS?

• It is important to have a flexible use of a wide range of vocabulary for IELTS as the examiner will be looking for this in the writing and speaking
• It is also necessary for your reading so that you understand the texts as they will have a lot of difficult words.
• When it comes to IELTS academic writing, more of academic words should be included for both the tasks. Everyday language should be avoided and it should be strictly academic.
• Coming to IELTS general writing, if you task-1 is a casual letter, you should include more of phrasal verbs and casual language. In case of a formal letter, more of formal language with good words should be included. Task-2, which is an essay should consists academic words in case of both the modules.

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IELTS Vocabulary Tips

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• Learning long lists of words won’t improve your score, you need to learn words by context and topic
• Write to express not impress. Your main priority should be to communicate clearly and effectively. Therefore, you need to find a balance between accuracy, appropriacy and range. A single heavy word isn’t giving you the score you need.
• You can use hard copies or online versions such as dictionary.com and thesaurus.com.  When you come across a new word, look it up in the dictionary. An online dictionary will give you the definition and will let you hear the pronunciation.
• Group words together that relate to a similar topic to make it easier to remember and relate them. These categories could be food, hobbies, nature, society, etc.
• List words that the word collocates with. For example, manage effectively; manage competently; efficient management; competent management, etc.
• Learn one word each day. Check the menu or sidebar of alwaysielts.com for this.

IELTS Vocabulary by Category