Word list for the topic

Full list of words from this list:

1. underwater

   beneath the surface of the water

   How do some animals breathe
   underwater?

2. humans

   all of the living human inhabitants of the earth

   Why can’t
   humans breathe under water?
3. invent

   come up with after a mental effort

4. clothe

   provide with clothes or put clothes on

   Why do humans wear
   clothes?

5. breathe

   draw air into, and expel out of, the lungs

   How do some animals
   breathe underwater?
6. human race

   all of the living human inhabitants of the earth

   How did the
   human race begin?

7. lion

   large gregarious predatory feline of Africa and India having a tawny coat with a shaggy mane in the male

   How did
   lions first get made?

8. planet

   a celestial body that revolves around the sun
9. different

   unlike in nature, quality, form, or degree

   Why do people look
   different?

10. colours

    a distinguishing emblem

    Why do we have different skin
    colours?

11. people

    any group of human beings collectively

    How many
    people have lived/died in the world?

12. begin

    set in motion, cause to start

13. animal

    a living organism characterized by voluntary movement

    How do some
    animals breathe underwater?

14. language

    a means of communicating by the use of sounds or symbols

    Why do people speak different
    languages?
15. numbers

    an illegal daily lottery

16. human

    a person; a hominid with a large brain and articulate speech

    Why can’t
    humans breathe under water?

17. island

    a land mass that is surrounded by water

18. wear

    put clothing on one’s body

    Why do humans
    wear clothes?
19. skin

    a natural protective body covering and site of the sense of touch

    Why do we have different
    skin colours?

20. plant

    a living organism without the power to move

    How do
    plants start growing on an island without people?

21. brain

    the organ that is the center of the nervous system

    How are our eyes and our
    brains linked?

22. grow

    increase in size by natural process

    How do plants start
    growing on an island without people?
23. names

    verbal abuse; a crude substitute for argument

24. rule

    prescribed guide for conduct or action

25. earth

    the third planet from the sun

    Who were the first people on
    earth?

26. formed

    having or given a form or shape

    How do babies get
    formed?

27. speech

    communication by word of mouth

28. move

    change location

29. race

    a contest of speed

    How did the human
    race begin?

30. letters

    scholarly attainment
31. eye

    the organ of sight

    How are our
    eyes and our brains linked?

32. idea

    the content of cognition

    Where do people get new
    ideas from?

33. subject

    some situation or event that is thought about

    Who made different
    subjects at school like maths and reading?

34. school

    an educational institution

    Who made different subjects at
    school like maths and reading?

35. live

    have life, be alive

    How many people have
    lived/died in the world?

36. speak

    use language

    Why do people
    speak different languages?

37. place

    a point located with respect to surface features of a region

    What
    places in the world do we know?

38. letter

    a written message addressed to a person or organization

39. question

    a sentence of inquiry that asks for a reply

    Our
    Questions when we think about ‘One World, Many Faces’
    

40. number

    a concept of quantity involving zero and units

41. know

    be cognizant or aware of a fact or a piece of information

    What places in the world do we
    know?

42. water

    compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear liquid

    Why can’t humans breathe under
    water?

43. eyes

    opinion or judgment

    How are our
    eyes and our brains linked?

44. about

    (of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct

    Our Questions when we think
    about ‘One World, Many Faces’
    

Created on September 2, 2012

Typical vocabulary used when discussing specific topics or subjects (such as sports, time, weather or computers)

The Vocabulary of Censorship

Internet Vocabulary

Illustrated Vocabulary

Picture Quizzes
Test your vocab against these illustrated quizzes.

Illustrated A3 Vocabulary Posters

High quality printable posters for FREE download

FOOD
Our food vocabulary section covers types of food from fruits and vegetables to fish and dairy foods. It also covers cooking, kitchens and kitchenware and dining and dinnerware. You’ll also learn about eating out in restaurants and learn special vocabulary for British pubs and for ordering and dining in French, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Chinese and Thai restaurants. And don’t miss our section on food and health for tips on living a long and healthy life.

SPORTS
Learn general sports vocab as well as special vocab for football, basketball, baseball, tennis, cricket, rugby, golf and many more sports. You can also do fun vocab and sports knowledge quizzes and learn about the Olympic Games and the football World Cup.

MUSIC
Learn basic music vocab and more specialized vocab while reading about pop music, rock, country, soul, dance and rap or hip hop music. You can also read about early popular music genres like the blues and jazz, watch video clips of famous artists, find lists of recommended albums and see a music vocabulary list with lots of example sentences.

MOVIES

You can learn general vocabulary about movies and you can also learn more advanced vocab while reading about action movies, horror movies, comedies, dramas, sci-fi movies, historical dramas and documentaries. You’ll also find video clips from many famous movies and lists of recommended movies.

TIME
Learn the vocab of time, including how to tell the time, units of time, day and night, days of the week, months of the year and more. You can also listen to some songs about time with subtitles.

A Light-Year is a Measure of Distance, not Time

Superb video demonstration by NASA 🎬

NUMBERS
You can explore the vocabulary of numbers, looking at cardinal and ordinal numbers, decimals and fractions, Roman numerals, and listening to a song about numbers.

Planets Vocabulary
The eight planets of our solar system, facts and figures

Planet Names
How the planets got their names: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune — and the language around them

TV Series Vocabulary
Words we use when discussing TV series

Top 20 Business Words
Useful vocabulary in the business context

Survival English
keywords, phrases, questions and answers for beginners

Colours Vocabulary
red, orange, yellow…

Shapes Vocabulary
square, circle, triangle

Computer Vocabulary
backup, cache, DOS…

Paper Sizes Vocabulary
International ISO sizes; N.American ANSI sizes

Animal Vocabulary
With plural, male/female, young, collective terms
lion, lions, lion, lioness, lion cub, a pride

Hobbies Vocabulary
Words we use to talk about activities we do for fun

Jobs Vocabulary
Words we use to talk about the work we do for money

Criminals Vocabulary
Words we use to talk about the Law, crimes and criminals

More pages with topic vocabulary:

• English for Work
• Business Vocabulary
• Negotiations Vocabulary
• Meetings Vocabulary
• Telephone Vocabulary
• Rooms in a House
• Furniture and Decor
• Appliances
• Human Body
• Medical Vocabulary
• Vocabulary about Pollution
• Vocabulary about Endangered Species
• Useful Phrases in Greetings

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling

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Top 6 Types of IELTS Vocabulary & Topic Word Lists

Vocabulary
makes up 25% of your mark for the Writing and Speaking parts of the IELTS exam. Knowing a broad range of words is also essential for scoring well in the
Listening and Reading tests.

However, vocabulary
is far more important than this. It is, in fact, the most important skill area
you need to master when learning English.

Why?

Because vocabulary
is what spoken and written language is. That’s all language is.

Here’s what I
mean.

Spoken and
written language is:

words used in a
structured way to communicate meaning.

When you
study a language, you do three things, you:

The better
you get at this, the more fluent you become, but it’s all about the words.

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What is Key IELTS Vocabulary?

With the
average native English speaker estimated to have a vocabulary of 20,000 to
30,000 words, where do you start?

What are the
best words to focus on to build up a great IELTS vocabulary?

Here are the
four types of vocabulary I recommend all my students to concentrate on:

Let’s look at
each of them in turn.

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Vocabulary To Focus On

#1 Common words

First, you’ll
need to learn key words that are part of everyday conversations and written
text such as found in newspapers and magazines. This is where most English
learners start.

This will be
the vocabulary that you hear and see most regularly as you study English. You will come across it as you,

You need to
be doing these sorts of things every day and recording new vocabulary.

I give detailed
instructions on the best way to record vocabulary on this page:

 How to Learn Vocabulary for IELTS

Please read
this page before starting to work on the vocabulary topics lists because it
outlines important recommendations about what you should and should not do when
learning IELTS vocabulary.

---

#2 Versatile words

Versatile
means to be adaptable to many different situations. With tens of thousands of
possible words to choose from, it makes sense to focus on those that you can
use in as many different contexts as possible.

You’ll get
better at recognising them the more you work on IELTS practice questions. As
you see new vocabulary think, “would that have been useful for answering other
questions I’ve seen?” If the answer is “yes”, record the word or phrase and learn
it properly. I explain what I mean by ‘properly’ on the ‘How to learn IELTS vocabulary’ page mentioned above.

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#3 Topic-related vocabulary

Whilst it is
only in Part 1 of the Speaking test that there are common topics, there are
many subjects that appear regularly in the IELTS exam. You can’t know what will
come up in your test but it’s still a good idea to learn vocabulary related to popular
subjects, for example, health and fitness, education, technology and the
environment.

These types
of common topics could come up in any part of the IELTS exam. You might be
asked to talk or write about them, or they could be the focus of reading or
listening activities.

It’s for these
sorts of topics that I’ve created word lists and also collected together
practice questions. The lists are intended to make it quick and easy for you to
practice using the vocabulary which will help you to learn it.

They will save
you time researching the topics and having to look up the meaning of less common words and phrases.

The practice
questions relate to the Speaking test because this part of the exam offers you
the broadest range of possible questions on each topic to practice on. However,
the vocabulary is equally relevant for the Writing, Reading and Listening
tests.

IELTS Vocabulary – Common Topics

Don’t learn lists of words

These vocabulary
lists are not intended for you to go away and try to memorise all the different words and phrases.  That’s not what learning IELTS vocabulary is all about.

I have created them as a resource
for you to use when answering practice questions on the respective topics.

Focus on the words
and phrases you find most useful and most comfortable using. Add them to your vocabulary notebook and learn them properly, but don’t waste your time trying
to memorise them all.

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#4 Chunks of language

English, in
common with most other languages, contains a lot of idiomatic language.

What is
idiomatic language?

Idiomatic
language is groups of words, or chunks of language, that has a different
meaning when used together to the meaning of each separate word.

For example,

The only way to add this type of language to your vocabulary, and to be
able to use it correctly, is to learn it as chunks of language.

You’ll find that the topic words lists I’ve created for you are composed
mainly of idiomatic phrases because this is the vocabulary that you are least
likely to know already but will be some of the most useful to you.

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Key IELTS Vocabulary

There are
also two specific types of words that are very important to learn – synonyms
and antonyms.

Synonym – a
word that means exactly or nearly the same
as a given word

For example:

true:
genuine, accurate, factual, correct

Antonym – a
word that means the opposite to a given
word

For example:

energised: tired,
exhausted, drained, fatigued

Why are they so
important?

They are extremely
useful because a key skill you need to learn in order to do well in the IELTS exam
is paraphrasing.

To paraphrase
is to ‘state something written or spoken in different words’. For example,

• Nearly all the guests who went to the event fell ill with food poisoning the following day.

• The majority of guests who attended the event went down with food poisoning the next day.

These two sentences say exactly the same thing but using different words.

So, it’s vital to know a few synonyms of common words, and a couple of antonyms will also be useful.

You can see in this table of marking criteria for the IELTS Speaking test just how significant paraphrasing is. The ability to paraphrase is a key assessment criteria at levels 5 to 8.

I’ve highlighted the word so that you can spot it easily. You’ll also see that idiomatic language is mentioned.

Marking criteria for IELTS Speaking

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Final Thoughts

You don’t need:

• A vocabulary
  of complex, higher level, technical or academic words.

You do need:

• The right
  words for talking in everyday language about a range of topics.

• The ability
  to use them appropriately and correctly.

While you do
need to know the right vocabulary to answer questions on a particular topic and
know how to use it, you certainly don’t need to know every word related to the
subject. A carefully selected bank of key words and phrases will be enough to
answer most questions in your IELTS test.

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Here are the IELTS vocabulary topic lists and practice Speaking questions again:

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All Vocabulary Lessons

How to Learn IELTS Vocabulary – Discover
the 7 best ways to learn vocabulary for IELTS & avoid the big mistake most people make. 

Key IELTS Vocabulary – 6 key
types of vocabulary and why you need to learn them. Save hours of work and get
more marks.

Vocabulary for Academic Task 1 Essays – Learn key vocabulary for a high-scoring essay. Word lists & a downloadable PDF.

Letter Writing Vocabulary – Learn
useful phrases to help you achieve a high score. Also, know how to start &
end your letter.

Listening Test — Problem Vocabulary – 8 listening exercises to help you recognise &
learn problem vocabulary – time, numbers, prices, dates, letter
names & addresses.

Listening Test — Map & Plan Vocabulary – Learn essential vocabulary of location
& direction.

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2. IELTS Vocabulary

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3. Key IELTS Vocabulary

1. Back To Top

Click on the links for downloadable PDFs of IELTS vocabulary topics. Each PDF contains a list of essential vocabulary and idioms.

Tips for vocabulary topic lists

• Don’t try to memorize every word or idiom on the list. Choose the ones that you think are the most useful.

• Try to use them in your IELTS writing and speaking.

• Remember that idioms should only be used in the IELTS Speaking test and General Training Writing task 1 – informal letters.

• Add more words, phrases and idioms to the list when you find them in various sources.

• Use the topic lists as a foundation for your own vocabulary records.

• For a more detailed discussion, follow the link at the bottom of the page on how to increase your vocabulary.