Academic Word List (AWL)

next to or very near something, without necessarily touching it

Takes 'to', never 'of' or 'with': the field adjacent to the river. Frequent in geography, anatomy and statistics, where adjacent categories are the ones next to each other on an ordered scale. Not quite 'adjoining', which requires a shared boundary; things that are adjacent are beside one another but need not touch. Almost always predicative or postmodifying, so you write 'the plot adjacent to the road' far more often than 'the adjacent plot'.

although, used to introduce a short qualifying phrase rather than a full clause

The point of this word is what follows it: an adjective, adverb or participle phrase, not a subject and a verb. 'The results were positive, albeit modest' is right; 'albeit they were modest' is archaic. It comes after a comma in the middle of a sentence and cannot start one, which is the difference between it and 'although'. Originally three words, 'all be it', which is why it looks odd. Pronounce it in three syllables, awl-BEE-it.

to bring people, parts or information together into one place or one whole

Two senses, and both get confused with 'compile'. You assemble people or objects by bringing them into one place (a panel was assembled, delegates assembled), and you assemble a device by fitting its parts together. You compile a document out of sources. In method sections researchers assemble a dataset, a corpus or a sample. The noun 'assembly' covers the gathering and the fitting together, and in politics it names a legislature.

to fall down or fail suddenly and completely, or to merge separate categories into one

In history and economics the noun does most of the work: the collapse of a regime, a currency, a bank, a negotiation. Quantitative writing has a second sense that is not a disaster at all: to collapse categories is to merge them, so 'we collapsed the five response options into three' means nothing broke. The verb is intransitive in the first sense (something collapses) and transitive in the second (you collapse something).

a person you work with, especially in a profession

The academic use worth learning is citational: 'Rahman and colleagues (2019) found' is how you write 'et al.' in running prose, and it is the form you say out loud in a presentation. Note the spelling, which trips almost everyone: c-o-l-l-e-a-g-u-e. It is neutral to slightly formal; 'workmate' is informal and 'co-worker' is chiefly American. A colleague need not be a friend, so 'a colleague of mine' says nothing about liking them.

to collect material from different sources and arrange it into a single document or set

Keep it apart from 'comprise', which it resembles and does not mean: you compile a list out of sources, whereas a list comprises its items. Against 'assemble', the difference is the material: you compile information, you assemble people or parts. Collocates with list, report, database, bibliography, index, statistics and dossier. In computing it means to turn source code into a runnable program, which is why 'the code compiles' has no object.

to form an idea or plan in the mind, or to imagine something as being of a certain kind

In academic prose it nearly always appears as 'conceive of X as Y' or in the passive 'is best conceived as', which is how writers announce a definition they are adopting. The bare active 'we conceive a plan' is rarer and sounds literary. Be ready for the biological sense, to become pregnant, which shares the form. The family members you will write far more often are 'concept', 'conception' and 'conceptual'. Spelling follows the c-e-i pattern.

to make someone believe that something is true

The careful split is convince a person that something is so, but persuade a person to do something: belief against action. Patterns are 'convince someone that' and 'convince someone of something', and the object is a person, so evidence does not convince a claim. The form you will write most is the adjective: a convincing argument, convincing evidence. 'Unconvincing' is the standard, polite way of rejecting an argument in a review.

to push the level or strength of something down, or to make someone feel sad

In economics this is a neutral word for pushing a quantity downwards: tariffs depress trade, a glut depresses prices, a recession depresses wages. Nothing there is about mood. The mood sense normally surfaces as the adjective 'depressed' or the noun 'depression', and 'depression' is also the economic term for a severe, prolonged slump, so only the surrounding words tell you which is meant. A third, mechanical sense is to press a key or a pedal down.

to come across something, especially a problem, without having arranged to

Unlike 'meet' it implies nothing was arranged, and unlike 'run into' it is formal enough for a paper. Its academic collocates are overwhelmingly negative: encounter problems, difficulties, obstacles, resistance, opposition, delays. The noun has the identical form and is a technical term in medicine and sociology, where a clinical encounter is one consultation and everyday encounters are unplanned meetings between strangers.

extremely large in size, amount or degree

The one item in this sublist that style guides warn about: it is emphatic rather than measured, so reviewers often ask for 'substantial', 'considerable' or an actual number instead. Where it does belong, it collocates with variation, potential, implications, pressure and range. Do not reach for 'enormity' as its noun; in careful use that means great wickedness, and the size noun is 'enormousness' or, better, a rewrite. The adverb 'enormously' modifies comparatives well: enormously more expensive.

about to appear or be published, or willing to be given or made available

Three senses, all of them academic. In a reference list '(forthcoming)' stands where the year would go for a paper that is accepted but not yet printed. Money or support that is 'not forthcoming' never materialised. A person who is 'not forthcoming' withholds information. For the last two the negative is far commoner than the positive, which is why you will read 'no explanation was forthcoming' much more often than the affirmative version.

to tend towards a particular opinion or course of action, or to slope

What you actually meet in papers is the hedge 'be inclined to': 'we are inclined to accept the second explanation' is a guarded way of saying you accept it, and it leaves room to be wrong. The bare active, 'I incline to that view', is possible but sounds old-fashioned. The noun 'inclination' means a tendency, and a separate physical sense gives a slope, an angle and the tilt of the earth's axis. Stress falls on the second syllable in the verb.

honesty and firm moral principle, or the state of being whole and undamaged

Two senses that share nothing but a Latin root. The moral one is institutional vocabulary: 'academic integrity' is the official name for not plagiarising or cheating, and 'research integrity' covers honest data handling. The structural one takes 'of' and means wholeness: the integrity of the sample, of a dataset, of a bridge. Uncountable in both, so no plural and no article. The related adjective is 'integral', but that has drifted to mean essential, so it is not the adjective of either sense here.

belonging to the essential nature of something, coming from within rather than added from outside

It lives in a fixed pair with 'extrinsic': intrinsic motivation comes from the activity itself, extrinsic motivation from a reward outside it. Takes 'to': a risk intrinsic to the procedure. Close to 'inherent' in Sublist 9, and the working difference is what each contrasts with. 'Inherent' opposes what is acquired or accidental, while this word opposes what is external or instrumental, which is why 'intrinsic value' and 'extrinsic reward' are fixed terms and 'inherent reward' is not idiomatic.

to cite a rule, right, authority or principle in support of what you are doing or claiming

The confusion to fix is with 'evoke'. You invoke a law, a clause, a precedent, a doctrine or a thinker in order to justify a position; a photograph evokes a mood. Collocates with principle, right, article, precedent, clause, doctrine, privilege and, in argument, a mechanism that explains a result. A separate computing sense means to call a function or command. The noun is 'invocation'.

to impose and collect a tax or charge officially, or the charge so imposed

Only an authority levies, and it takes 'on': a duty is levied on imports, a charge on sugary drinks. Policy writing prefers the passive, so 'a levy was imposed' and 'duties were levied' are the shapes to memorise. The identical noun is countable and very common in tax and environmental policy. Past tense is 'levied', not 'levyed'. Do not confuse it with its homophone 'levee', which is a river embankment. A historical sense, to raise troops, survives in older sources.

in the same way, or used to add a further statement that parallels the one before

It is a linking adverb, not a conjunction, so it cannot join two clauses with only a comma: use a full stop or a semicolon before it. Two jobs. 'Do likewise' means act the same way, and is the older use. Sentence-initial 'Likewise,' adds a parallel point, close to 'similarly', and unlike 'moreover' it claims the new point matches rather than outweighs the last one. It can also sit mid-clause after the subject. One word, never two.

One word in modern usage; the three-word 'none the less' is an older British spelling that now looks dated. It is an adverb, not a conjunction, so it cannot join two clauses by itself: put a full stop or a semicolon in front of it, or pair it with 'but'. Position is free, at the front of the clause, after the subject, or at the end. Interchangeable with 'nevertheless' and a step more formal than 'still'. It concedes the previous point rather than denying it.

in spite of, placed either before or after the noun it applies to

The rare English preposition that may follow its object as well as precede it: 'notwithstanding these objections' and 'these objections notwithstanding' are both correct, the second more formal and more literary. Never put 'of' after it. It is heavily legal, where a 'notwithstanding clause' overrides other provisions, and it can also govern a that-clause. Keep it away from 'nevertheless', which is an adverb linking two sentences rather than a preposition taking a noun.

strange or unexpected, or, of a number, not divisible by two

Three unrelated things share this form. Strange is the everyday sense. In mathematics it contrasts with 'even'. Most importantly for research reading, the plural noun 'odds' is a technical term for the ratio of the chance that something happens to the chance that it does not, which is why an 'odds ratio' in epidemiology is not the same as a risk ratio and cannot be read as one. Two further idioms: 'twenty-odd years' means roughly twenty, and 'the odd exception' means an occasional one, not a strange one.

still in progress and not yet finished

One word; the hyphenated 'on-going' is dated. It works before a noun and after 'be' alike: an ongoing debate, the review is ongoing. Method sections use it for work that continues past the write-up. Worth a style warning: it is often empty padding, because 'ongoing research' and 'research' usually say the same thing. Keep it only where the contrast with completed or abandoned work does real work in the sentence.

a group of people chosen to judge, advise or be surveyed, or a flat section of a surface

The sense that catches learners out is the statistical one. 'Panel data' and a 'panel study' mean the same units are observed repeatedly over time, which is what distinguishes them from a cross-section; nobody on that panel is an expert or a judge. Elsewhere it is a committee: an expert panel, a review panel, a panel discussion, and in Britain a hospital panel. A third sense is physical: a solar panel, a wall panel. The verb 'to panel' belongs only to that last one.

to continue to exist over time, or to keep doing something despite difficulty

Two patterns carry two meanings. With no object it means to last, and that is the academic use: the gap persisted, symptoms persist, the effect persisted after controls. With 'in' or 'with' and a person as subject it means to keep going stubbornly, and it carries mild disapproval. The adjective 'persistent' and the noun 'persistence' are commoner than the verb, and both lean towards describing something unwelcome that will not go away.

to present something such as a question, a problem, a threat or a risk

This is the verb academic English uses where a learner reaches for 'make'. You pose a question, and a hazard poses a risk or a threat; neither is ever 'made'. Full collocate set: pose a question, a problem, a challenge, a threat, a risk, a dilemma, a difficulty. 'Raise' works for a question but not for a threat. Two other senses to recognise: to pose as someone is to pretend to be them, and to pose for a portrait is to hold a position.

unwillingness to do something, especially when you end up doing it anyway

It takes 'to' plus an infinitive, never a gerund: a reluctance to report, not a reluctance in reporting. Uncountable, and usually preceded by a measure word such as some, a certain, considerable or marked. Research writing uses it to name a barrier: reluctance to seek help, to disclose income, to be recorded. The adjective 'reluctant' is far commoner, so a heavy sentence built on the noun often reads better rebuilt on it.

known by that name, often with the suggestion that the name is not deserved

Hyphenated and used only in front of a noun; the two-word 'so called' after a verb is a different construction. It usually carries scepticism, distancing the writer from a label somebody else chose, which is why 'the so-called reforms' is a criticism. Mathematics and physics use it in a second, neutral way, to flag a term of art on first mention. Because it already marks the label as borrowed, adding scare quotes on top is redundant.

simple and easy to understand or do, or honest and direct in manner

One word, never hyphenated and never split in two. Academic writers use the negative far more than the positive: 'the interpretation is not straightforward' is the standard understated way of saying a result is hard to explain, and it is politer than calling it confusing. The other sense describes a person or an answer as plainly honest. Prefer it to 'simple', which can sound as though you are belittling the problem. The adverb is 'straightforwardly'.

to experience something, especially a process or a change that is done to you

Irregular, and the forms catch people out: underwent, undergone. The subject is the thing acted on rather than the actor, so the verb already carries a passive sense and is almost never made passive itself. Collocates with treatment, surgery, screening, training, testing, change, transformation and revision. What follows is normally imposed or endured rather than enjoyed, so 'undergo a holiday' is wrong even though the grammar looks fine.

by which, used to introduce the way a system or an arrangement works

A relative adverb standing in for 'by which', so it never opens a sentence and always follows a noun naming an arrangement: a system whereby, a scheme whereby, a mechanism whereby, a process whereby. Never put a preposition in front of it. Do not confuse it with 'whereas', which contrasts two facts, or with 'wherein', which means 'in which'. If there is no such noun for it to attach to, the sentence wants 'so that' or 'in which' instead.