Academic Word List (AWL)

to change something so that it suits a new situation, or to change in order to fit one

Do not confuse it with 'adopt', which is one letter away and means to take something up unchanged. Intransitively it takes 'to' (species adapt to a warmer climate); transitively you adapt something for a new purpose, and 'adapted from' credits an instrument you borrowed and changed. The noun 'adaptation' is the form you will cite most.

a fully grown person, or relating to fully grown people

In research writing it works hardest in front of another noun: adult learners, the adult population, adult literacy. Stress differs by dialect (British ADult, American aDULT). Two traps: 'adulthood' is the life stage, and the euphemistic sense in 'adult content' means pornographic, so avoid the bare word where that reading is possible.

to publicly support or argue in favour of a course of action

Noun and verb are spelled alike but said differently: the noun ends in a weak -cat, the verb in a full -cate. Careful British usage gives the verb a plain object or an -ing form (advocates raising the tax), while 'advocate for' a person is now standard American English. The noun means a supporter of a cause, and in Scotland a courtroom lawyer.

help or support, especially money and resources given to those in need

Two grammars in one word. Uncountable for assistance given to people or countries (foreign aid, humanitarian aid, legal aid), and countable for a thing that helps (a teaching aid, a visual aid, a hearing aid). An 'aide' with an e is a person who assists someone senior. The verb is a formal alternative to help and takes a bare object: aid recovery, not aid to recovery.

a route along which something travels, or a means by which information passes

The academic sense is figurative: a route along which something travels. Fixed phrases carry it: through official channels, channels of communication, distribution channels. The verb means to direct something along a route, and doubles the l in British spelling (channelled, channelling) but not in American (channeled, channeling).

relating to substances and the reactions between them

As an adjective it modifies reaction, composition, industry, weapon, analysis; as a countable noun in the plural it names the substances themselves, often with a negative colouring (chemicals in the water supply). 'Chemistry' is the discipline and 'chemist' the scientist, though in British English a chemist's is also a pharmacy.

typical of its kind, or long admired as the standard example

In academic prose 'a classic study' means the defining, most cited one, not simply an old one. Keep it apart from 'classical', which means relating to ancient Greece and Rome, or to an established body of theory (classical physics, classical economics). 'The classics' as a plural noun is the study of the ancient world.

including everything that is relevant; complete in coverage

It means complete in coverage, not easy to follow: that is 'comprehensible'. Collocates with review, account, survey, ban, insurance. In British education a comprehensive is a state secondary school that admits pupils of all abilities, so the noun sense can ambush a reader in an education paper.

to consist of or be made up of particular parts

The whole comprises the parts, and traditionally it takes no 'of': the committee comprises nine members. 'Is comprised of' is now widespread but many editors and markers still mark it wrong, so 'consist of' (sublist 1) or 'be composed of' are the safe choices. The other error runs the sentence backwards, making the parts comprise the whole.

to show that something is true, or to state officially that it is so

A strong claim in research writing: results confirm a hypothesis only if the study could have refuted it, so hedge with 'support' or 'are consistent with' where it could not. A second, administrative sense is to state officially (confirm receipt, confirm a booking). The noun is 'confirmation', and 'confirmed' before a noun means established beyond doubt.

opposite in nature or direction to what has been said or expected

Three phrases, routinely mixed up. 'On the contrary' contradicts what was just said and stands alone. 'To the contrary' means saying the opposite and hangs off a noun: evidence to the contrary, nothing to the contrary. 'Contrary to' plus a noun flags a mismatch with expectation: contrary to previous findings. Describing a person, it means deliberately awkward and shifts its stress.

to change something into a different form, system or belief

The pattern is convert X into Y for form and use, but convert to for belief and for systems of measurement. Stress splits the parts of speech: conVERT the verb, CONvert the noun, which names a person who has changed belief. 'Conversion' is the process noun and carries a religious and a technical sense at once, so give the reader the context.

two people or things taken together; loosely, a small number

British usage often takes a plural verb for two people (the couple were interviewed), American usage a singular. 'A couple of' means two or three and is too loose for formal writing whenever you have the actual number. The verb is worth learning chiefly in 'coupled with', a compact way of joining two causes in one clause.

a period of ten years

The standard time frame of a literature review: over the past decade, in the decades since. The plural is vague, so replace it with dates wherever your evidence allows. Note the spelling with no i, and that 'decadent' is a false friend from a different root.

clear and certain, leaving no room for doubt

Not a hedge but its opposite: it claims certainty, so use it only when the evidence supports one. Grammar borrows it as a term of art, since 'the' is the definite article. Keep it apart from 'definitive', which means final and authoritative: a definite answer is certain, a definitive study is the one that settles the question.

to say that something is not true, or to refuse someone access to something

Two grammars. Deny something or deny that something is so, for a claim; and deny somebody something, for access withheld, which is usually passive in policy writing (patients were denied treatment). It is not a substitute for 'refuse to': you refuse to sign a form, you do not deny to sign it. Third person 'denies', noun 'denial'.

to recognise or show what makes two things unlike each other

'Distinguish' is the everyday choice; this word is preferred when the difference takes work to see, or when one thing actively sets another apart. Same patterns as its rival: differentiate between A and B, or differentiate A from B. Two specialist senses to recognise, adapting a task to pupils of different abilities in teaching, and finding a derivative in mathematics.

to get rid of something, or to make someone inclined to act in a certain way

Almost always 'dispose of'. Drop the 'of' and the meaning changes to arranging things or making someone inclined, which is rare and literary. The family is where the everyday words live: 'disposal' (waste disposal, at your disposal), 'disposed to' meaning inclined to, and 'disposable' meaning made to be thrown away.

constantly changing or driven by forces that produce change

In modelling it is the opposite of 'static': a dynamic model lets values change over time, a static one fixes them. As a noun it names the forces at work in a situation, and 'group dynamics' takes a plural verb in that sense though the branch of physics takes a singular. Leave the appraisal sense, a dynamic leader, out of academic prose.

to remove something completely so that none of it remains

Absolute, and stronger than 'reduce': nothing is left afterwards, so 'largely eliminated' is a contradiction a marker will notice. Use 'reduce' or 'minimise' when some remains. In research design you eliminate a rival explanation or a source of bias; in a procedure you eliminate cases from a sample. Pattern: eliminate X from Y.

based on observation or experiment rather than on theory alone

The word that separates a claim you can check against the world from one you have only argued for. A theoretical proposition becomes an empirical one at the moment somebody tests it. Collocates: empirical evidence, research, findings, support, and the adverb usually attaches to 'test' or 'verify'. It does not mean 'practical', and it does not mean 'true'.

to supply someone or something with what is needed

Usually passive and usually with 'with': the laboratory is equipped with, graduates are better equipped to. Double the p before an ending (equipped, equipping). The noun 'equipment' is uncountable, so write 'a piece of equipment' and never 'equipments', which is one of the commonest countability errors in technical writing.

to take or obtain something out of a larger whole

Stress separates the parts of speech: exTRACT the verb, EXtract the noun, which names a passage taken from a longer text. Pattern: extract X from Y. In qualitative work you extract themes from transcripts, in data work variables from a database, in chemistry a substance from a plant. Do not use it for merely citing a source.

an organised collection of documents or data kept together

Computing has taken over the plain word, so say 'case files' or 'paper records' when you mean documents. The formal verb senses are worth having: to file a claim, an appeal or a complaint is to submit it officially, and 'on file' means held in a record. The office sense also gives 'filing cabinet' and 'filing system', spelled without the e.

having a limit or an end; not without bounds

Learners meet the negative first, which is why the plain form looks technical. Watch the pronunciation, which does not follow it: FY-nite here, but IN-fi-nit for the opposite. In policy and economics it marks scarcity (finite resources); in mathematics it is exact (a finite set), and in grammar a finite verb is one carrying tense and a subject.

the base on which something rests, or a body set up to fund work

Three senses meet in academic life: the base an argument rests on (the theoretical foundation), a body that funds research, and in British higher education a foundation year or foundation degree taken before a full course. 'Lay the foundations for' is the standard collocation, and the related verb takes 'on': the argument is founded on, never founded in.

the earth considered as a whole, or a round model of it

The bare noun is far rarer than its family; what you will actually write is 'global' and 'globalisation', spelled with an s in British English and with a z in American English. 'Across the globe' is journalistic, and formal prose usually trims it to 'worldwide' or names the regions instead.

a mark showing quality or achievement, or a level on a scale

Dialect splits the school sense: American pupils are in fourth grade where British ones are in Year 5, and British universities award marks and a degree classification rather than grades. The other live sense is a level on a scale of quality, which is where the verb comes from: to grade ore, or to grade scripts.

As strong as a claim gets: it says no exception is possible, so 'ensure' or 'make it likely' is usually what an argument can actually support. Note the spelling, with 'ua' and a final double e. The noun takes 'of' or a that-clause, a 'guarantor' stands behind a promise, and 'warranty' is the narrower commercial cousin.

a system in which people or things are ranked one above another

Spelled 'hier' and said HY-ruh-key. The adjective 'hierarchical' is the form you will write most, and in statistics 'hierarchical models' are those that nest one level of data inside another, such as pupils within schools. Takes 'of', and Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the example most students reach for.

exactly the same in every detail

An absolute: 'almost identical' is fine because it approaches the limit, but 'very identical' is not, since there are no degrees of sameness. When two things merely resemble each other, 'similar' (sublist 1) is the honest word. It takes 'to' in modern British usage and 'with' in older legal prose, and 'identical twins' is the fixed term in heredity research.

Rarely neutral: calling a position ideological implies it is held for reasons other than the evidence, which is why the word is an argument and not a description. The adjective 'ideological' and adverb 'ideologically' are the working forms, and the plural is common in political science. If you mean a set of views you agree with, 'position' or 'framework' is fairer.

to reach a conclusion from evidence rather than from being told

Half of the classic pair with 'imply' (sublist 3): a writer or a piece of evidence implies, a reader or a researcher infers. So 'the author infers that' is wrong wherever you mean the author suggested it. Double the r for the verb forms (inferred, inferring) but not for the noun 'inference', which has one.

to bring in something new, especially a new method or product

The verb is much rarer than its family, and funding and appraisal language runs on the noun 'innovation' and the adjective 'innovative'. It is intransitive: firms innovate, but they do not 'innovate a product', they develop or introduce one. Watch the spelling with two n's.

to put something into something else

Stress separates verb from noun again: inSERT the verb, INsert the noun, which is a loose sheet placed inside a publication. Pattern: insert X into Y. It is the precise word for adding something into an existing structure, a clause into a contract or a column into a table, where 'input' would be wrong.

to become involved in a situation in order to change what happens

Takes 'in', and the subject is normally an authority acting deliberately: the state intervenes in the market, a researcher intervenes in a process. The noun is a term of art in medicine and education, where an 'intervention' is the programme or treatment being tested and the 'intervention group' is the one receiving it. 'Intervening' also means coming between in time.

to separate something from everything around it

In research it names the whole point of a design: you isolate a variable to show that it, and nothing else, produced the effect. Pattern: isolate X from Y. The noun carries a second, distinct research concept, since 'social isolation' means being cut off from other people rather than being experimentally separated.

the main means of mass communication, taken collectively

Historically the plural of 'medium' (sublist 9), and careful writers still write 'the media are'; singular agreement is now accepted by most style guides, so choose one and hold it across the whole paper. What is still wrong is 'a media' for a single outlet: write 'a medium' or 'a media organisation'. The other plurals split by sense, since people claiming to contact the dead are 'mediums'.

a way in which something is done, or the value occurring most often in a set

Three senses worth separating. A manner of doing something, which is where the collocations live (mode of transport, mode of delivery, mode of production); a setting on a machine; and the statistic that sits beside mean and median, meaning the value that occurs most often. The adjective 'modal' serves both the statistic and, in grammar, verbs such as 'may' and 'must'.

a framework of assumptions and methods shared by a research community

Kuhn's term for the settled framework a field works inside until a 'paradigm shift' replaces it, and one of the most over-used words in student writing: if you mean approach, model or theory, write that instead. Said PA-ra-dime, with the g silent, though it returns in 'paradigmatic'. Psychology adds a narrower sense, where it names an experimental design.

The plural is 'phenomena', and 'a phenomena' or 'this phenomena' is among the errors markers flag most often, exactly as with criterion and criteria (sublist 3). One is singular, the other cannot be. The adjective 'phenomenal' means extraordinary and belongs to a different register, so it is not the adjective this noun needs.

something treated as more important than other things, or the right to come first

The collocations are fixed and worth memorising whole: give priority to, take priority over, a high or top priority. 'Prioritise' is the verb and is now standard in policy writing whatever older style guides say. 'First priority' and 'main priority' are usually padding, since a priority already comes first.

to forbid something officially, by law or by rule

More formal than 'ban' and far stronger than 'discourage', because it implies an authority and a rule behind it. Two patterns: prohibit something, and prohibit somebody from doing something, with 'from' and an -ing form, never 'prohibit somebody to do'. The adjective has drifted away from the verb: prohibitive costs are costs so high that they stop you.

a book, article or report that has been issued, or the act of issuing it

Two senses run together in academic life: the process (prior to publication, the date of publication) and the thing produced, which is what a list of publications on a CV means. 'Publication bias' names the tendency of journals to print positive results and is a standard limitation to acknowledge. Not 'publicity', which is attention rather than issue.

to repeat someone's exact words, or to state a price

In careful writing the verb pairs with the noun 'quotation', not with the short noun 'quote', though that is now common. Patterns: quote from a source, quote somebody as saying. Do not treat it as a synonym for 'cite': you cite a source to credit it, you quote its exact words. Commerce adds a stated price, and a 'quoted company' is one listed on a stock exchange.

to make something available to the public, or to let something out

Two academic uses. Making information public, which is where 'the figures released last week' and the fixed term 'press release' come from; and letting a substance out, which is the standard verb in environmental science. People and obligations take 'from': released from custody, released from a duty. The noun covers both senses unchanged.

to change something to its opposite, or to overturn a decision

Courts reverse judgments, policies reverse trends, and 'the reverse is true' introduces a flat contrast. The noun 'reversal' is the process. Learn 'reverse causation' as a phrase: it is the standard objection that what you call the effect may in fact be causing what you call the cause, and naming it in a limitations section earns marks.

to imitate a real process, usually by running a model

In research it means running a model to see how a system would behave, so 'simulated data' are generated on purpose and openly, not faked. The noun 'simulation' is the form you will meet most. Keep it apart from 'stimulate', one letter away and unrelated, which is a mistake that survives a spellcheck.

being the only one, with no others involved

Only before a noun in this sense, so 'the sole survivor' works but 'the reason was sole' does not. The adverb is the form learners more often need: 'solely' means exclusively and can sit almost anywhere in the clause, as in funded solely by donations. Two more nouns share the spelling: the underside of a foot and the flat fish, which are one word between them, both from Latin solea, a sandal. Neither is related to this adjective, which comes from solus, alone.

to a small or moderate degree; slightly

A hedge, and its job is to weaken a claim your evidence cannot fully carry: 'the results are somewhat surprising' concedes far less than 'surprising'. It sits in front of adjectives and comparatives and reads as formal, where 'a bit' reads as speech. One hedge per claim is enough, since stacking them makes writing evasive rather than careful.

to hand work in formally for consideration, or to yield to authority

The academic sense is administrative: you submit a paper, an assignment or an application, and the noun is 'submission'. Double the t before an ending (submitted, submitting). Two other senses to recognise: in legal argument 'we submit that' means we contend, and 'submit to' means to give in to an authority.

a person or thing that comes after another and takes its place

Not about success, though both words go back to 'succeed': this is that verb in its other sense, to follow. It takes 'to' (her successor as chair) and pairs with 'predecessor', the word learners forget they need. In technical and business writing a successor model or successor system is the one that replaces an earlier version.

to continue to live or exist, especially after something dangerous

Transitive with no preposition: you survive an illness or a recession, never 'survive from' one. Historical and archival writing uses it intransitively for documents that have come down to us. The noun is standard in medicine, where five-year survival rates are reported, and 'survival of the fittest' is Spencer's phrase rather than Darwin's.

a long piece of research written for a degree, or the central claim of an argument

The plural is 'theses', said THEE-seez, and never 'thesises'. Two senses both matter to a student. The long piece of research submitted for a degree, where British universities usually call the doctoral work a thesis and the master's one a dissertation while American ones tend to swap the pair. And the central claim of an argument, which is what a tutor means by a 'thesis statement': the sentence in your introduction saying what you will argue.

the subject that a piece of writing or a discussion deals with

Narrower than 'subject' and wider than a claim: it is what you write about, not what you say about it. 'Topic sentence' is the standard name for the sentence stating what a paragraph will cover, usually the first. The adjective is a false friend, since 'topical' means current or in the news rather than on-subject.

to pass something on from one person, place or generation to another

Used of signals, diseases and culture alike: transmit data, transmit a virus, transmit values between generations. Prefer it to 'send' when a channel or medium is doing the carrying. Double the t before an ending (transmitted, transmitting), and note that the noun splits by field, since 'transmission' is the process in epidemiology and the gearbox in mechanics.

final in a sequence, or most basic and underlying

Two senses pull in different directions: last in a sequence (the ultimate stage) and most basic or underlying (the ultimate cause), so the reader needs the context to tell which you mean. The adverb 'ultimately' usually means 'in the end' and works as a discourse marker at the front of a sentence. 'Penultimate' means second to last, and the loose sense of 'best' belongs to advertising.

being the only one of its kind, unlike anything else

The standard example of a non-gradable adjective: 'very unique' and 'more unique' are the errors examiners circle, because there are no degrees of being the only one. 'Almost unique' and 'virtually unique' are fine, since they approach the absolute instead of grading it. It takes 'to' for exclusivity, as in a species found only on one island. The loose everyday sense, merely unusual, is what spreads the error.

able to be seen, or easy to notice

Physical (visible to the naked eye) and figurative (a highly visible campaign) senses both appear in academic prose. The noun 'visibility' means public prominence in policy writing, and 'visible minority' is the official term in Canadian statistics. Do not swap it for 'visual', which means relating to sight or made of pictures rather than able to be seen.

done by choice rather than because of force or payment

Two uses you will meet constantly. In ethics statements, participation is voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time, which is close to a fixed formula. In British policy writing the 'voluntary sector' means charities and unpaid organisations, set against the public and private sectors. The opposites are 'compulsory' and 'mandatory'; the adverb 'voluntarily' adds a syllable that learners often drop.