Academic vocabulary for TOEFL
The academic vocabulary TOEFL reading and listening rely on: common academic words, word families, and subject vocabulary from biology to history.
In this lesson you will
- Learn high-frequency academic words
- Recognise word families and prefixes
- Build subject vocabulary for academic passages and talks
Learn
Academic passages and talks cover subjects like biology, geology, astronomy, history, art, psychology and economics. You don’t need expert knowledge — but academic words appear everywhere.
High-frequency academic words: analyse, approach, assume, consist of, derive, distinct, evidence, factor, function, indicate, interpret, significant, structure, theory, vary.
Word families help guess meaning: evolve, evolution, evolutionary; migrate, migration, migratory. Prefixes: pre- (before), inter- (between), sub- (under), trans- (across), bio- (life), geo- (earth).
Learn in context: keep a notebook with a sentence for each word, and review with spaced repetition (the KitWren vocabulary trainer includes academic and exam sets).
| Subject | Useful words |
|---|---|
| Biology | species, habitat, organism, adapt, predator, cell |
| Geology | sediment, erosion, layer, volcanic, fossil |
| Astronomy | orbit, gravity, planet, galaxy, atmosphere |
| History | civilisation, empire, trade, settlement, era |
| Psychology | behaviour, cognitive, perception, motivation |
Examples
- Erosion gradually wore away the soft rock.
- Many species adapted to the colder climate.
- The findings indicate a significant difference between the groups.
Vocabulary
erosion
gradual wearing away by wind or water
habitat
the natural home of a plant or animal
derive
come from
distinct
clearly different
migratory
moving regularly from one region to another
Practice
“Geo-” relates to…
Speaking
Explain a natural process you know (e.g. the water cycle, how volcanoes form) in one minute using at least six academic words.
Lesson quiz
“Sub-” means…
Review
Key points
- High-frequency academic words.
- Word families and prefixes.
- Subject vocabulary.
- Learn in context; spaced repetition.
What you learned
- ✓ I know key academic words.
- ✓ I use prefixes to guess meaning.
- ✓ I build subject vocabulary.