Academic Word List (AWL)

to provide room or facilities for something, or to change so as to make room for it

Two senses, and the academic one is not the hotel one. In argument it means make room for or take account of: a theory accommodates awkward evidence, a timetable accommodates part-time students. It is also among the most misspelled words in English (double c, double m). The noun 'accommodation' meaning lodging is uncountable in British English, while American English says 'accommodations'.

a comparison between two things that are alike in some way, used to explain one of them

The pattern is 'an analogy between A and B' or 'by analogy with', never 'analogy of'. You draw or make an analogy. The adjective is 'analogous', which takes 'to' and is pronounced with a hard g; do not confuse it with 'analogue', a signal or a counterpart. Arguing from analogy is legitimate but weak, and 'false analogy' is a named fallacy.

to expect something and prepare or act in advance because of it

Stronger than 'expect': you anticipate something and act on it in advance. The grammar trips learners up because it takes a that-clause or an -ing form but never a to-infinitive, so 'we anticipate to find' is wrong and 'we anticipate finding' is right. In a proposal, 'anticipated outcomes' promises you have planned for them; if you only mean 'we think', write 'expect'.

to tell someone confidently that something is true, so as to remove their doubt

One of a confusable trio. You assure a PERSON that something is true, you ensure a RESULT, and you insure property against loss. Most sentences in which students write 'assure' actually need 'ensure'. In British English 'assurance' also names life insurance, and 'quality assurance' is the fixed term for checking that standards are met.

to reach or achieve a level, standard or goal, usually after effort

A formal 'reach', used for standards, levels, qualifications and ages, not for places: you reach a station, you do not attain it. British education writing leans on the noun, so 'attainment', 'levels of attainment' and 'the attainment gap' are the phrases to recognise in policy documents. 'Attainable' means realistically reachable, which is the whole point of the word.

It survives only inside a phrase: 'on behalf of someone' or 'on someone's behalf', meaning as their representative or in their interest. It has no plural and never stands alone, so 'on the behalf' is wrong; American English also keeps 'in behalf of', traditionally for someone's benefit rather than as their representative. Keep it apart from 'on the part of', which attributes an action to someone rather than doing it for them.

the main or largest part of something, or its large size or mass

'The bulk of' means the majority, and the verb after it follows the sense: the bulk of the money was, the bulk of the students were. It also means sheer mass, which gives 'in bulk', 'bulk buying' and the adjective 'bulky'. In a thesis 'the majority of' is the safer choice, because 'the bulk of the evidence' sounds like an estimate rather than a count.

to stop doing something, or to come to an end

The formal 'stop'. It takes both patterns with a slight difference: 'cease trading' is about an activity ending, 'cease to exist' about a state ending. The noun is irregular and worth memorising, because it is 'cessation', not 'ceasement'. Everyday English prefers 'stop', so 'cease' in a sentence signals a legal, official or literary register.

logically connected and easy to follow as a whole

The examiner's word: the IELTS writing criteria are headed 'Coherence and Cohesion', and the two are not the same. Coherence is whether the whole argument hangs together and can be followed; cohesion is whether the sentences are linked by devices such as 'however' and 'therefore'. A text can be cohesive without being coherent. Applied to a policy it means the parts do not contradict one another.

to happen at the same time as something else, or to agree or match

Always with 'with', in two senses: to happen at the same time, and to agree or match. The trap is the noun. 'Coincidence' adds a claim that the timing was mere chance, which the verb does not make, so 'the two peaks coincide' reports timing while 'it was a coincidence' denies a connection. Neither is a claim of cause, and neither is the same as 'correlate'.

to begin or start, especially in formal or official language

Begin, in the register of statutes, contracts and ceremonies: proceedings commence, a course commences in October. Reaching for it in ordinary prose is a common way to make writing sound stiff, and 'the experiment commenced' is no clearer than 'the experiment began'. Note the American noun 'commencement', which means a graduation ceremony rather than a beginning.

able to exist or be used together without conflict

Always 'compatible with', never 'compatible to'. It has a technical home (compatible with Windows) and an argumentative one, and the second is worth care: saying a result is compatible with a hypothesis claims only that it does not contradict it, which is much weaker than saying it supports it. Negative 'incompatible', noun 'compatibility'.

happening or existing at the same time as something else

Learn it against 'consecutive', because the pair carries real consequences. Concurrent things run at the same time; consecutive things run one after another, so concurrent prison sentences of four years mean four years in total and consecutive ones mean much longer. In test design 'concurrent validity' means the new measure agrees with an established one taken at the same time.

to keep something within limits, or to keep someone shut in a restricted place

In academic prose it usually marks scope: this paper confines itself to England, the analysis is confined to adults. The pattern is 'confine X to Y', often reflexively. Physically it means to shut in, which gives 'a confined space' and 'confinement'. The plural noun 'confines' means boundaries, as in 'within the confines of the study'.

a public disagreement in which many people argue strongly on opposing sides

A public dispute in which many people take sides, not merely a disagreement between two researchers. A controversy is sparked, provoked or fuelled, and a figure can be at the centre of one. The word is famous for its two stresses, on the first syllable in American English and often on the second in British English, and both are accepted. Adjective 'controversial'.

the reversed or opposite form of a statement

Three words wearing one spelling. The noun 'the converse' is the statement with its terms reversed, and in logic the converse of 'if A then B' is 'if B then A', which need not be true. The adjective means opposite. The verb, stressed on the second syllable, means to talk. The one you will actually write is the linker 'conversely', which introduces the reversed case.

an object made for a particular purpose, or a technique used to achieve an effect

The noun is spelled with c and the verb 'devise' with s, exactly as in advice and advise, and the pair is a reliable source of marks lost: you devise a method, you use a device. Beyond hardware it names a technique, so a rhetorical or literary device is a deliberate move by a writer. The idiom 'left to their own devices' means without supervision.

to give time, money, space or effort entirely to one purpose

'Devote X to Y', where X is time, money, space or effort, and the passive is the form academic writing uses most: the second chapter is devoted to method. Keep the family apart. 'Devoted' as an adjective means loyal or loving, and the noun 'devotion' is emotional or religious, so 'the devotion of three pages to sampling' reads oddly where 'three pages are devoted to sampling' is normal.

to become smaller or less important, or to make something so

Works both ways round: an effect diminishes, and something diminishes an effect. The participle carries two fixed terms worth knowing, 'diminishing returns' in economics and 'diminished responsibility' in law. The noun is 'diminution', rare and awkward enough that most writers rephrase with a verb. It implies a gradual decline, so it does not fit a sudden collapse.

to change something so that it is no longer accurate or true to its original form

The standard verb for what a bias does to a result: outliers distort the mean, leading questions distort the answers. It always carries a criticism, since something true has been bent out of shape, so it is not a neutral substitute for 'affect'. The noun 'distortion' is countable and can be listed, as in 'three sources of distortion'.

the length of time that something lasts

A measured length of time, never a point in it, so 'at the duration' is impossible and 'for the duration of' is the usual phrase. It pairs with 'period', which names a stretch of time rather than measuring it. Medicine and psychology use it constantly: duration of symptoms, duration of exposure, mean duration of treatment.

to wear something away gradually, whether rock or something abstract such as trust

Geological in origin and figurative in use: what academic writing erodes is trust, confidence, support, rights or margins. The word builds in slowness and one direction, so it belongs with 'gradually' and 'steadily' rather than with 'suddenly', and nothing is eroded overnight. The noun 'erosion' is the form you will meet most, as in 'the erosion of civil liberties'.

a principle or set of principles about what is morally right

The singular names a guiding principle, as in 'a work ethic' or 'a professional ethic'. The plural does double duty and changes its verb accordingly: as the branch of philosophy it is singular ('ethics is concerned with'), as a person's code it is plural ('his ethics were questioned'). Every dissertation also needs the adjective in its administrative sense, 'ethical approval'.

the way something is arranged or presented, or to arrange it in that way

Noun and verb. As a noun it is the shape something is presented in, from the format of an exam to a file format; as a verb it means to arrange to a specification, and in computing it also means to wipe a disk clean, which is why 'format the drive' is an alarming instruction. Spelling: the t doubles, giving formatted and formatting. It shares the Latin forma with 'formation' and 'formula', though each has settled into a quite separate use.

to establish an organisation or institution, or to base something on a principle or evidence

Not the past tense of 'find'. This is a separate verb, found, founded, founded, meaning to establish: a college is founded in 1451, whereas a key is found under a chair. Read the sentence for the pattern, because 'the society was founded' can only be this verb. Its second use is 'be founded on', meaning be based on. The noun 'foundation' is its own headword in sublist 7.

existing as a natural and permanent part of something, and so impossible to remove

Takes 'in', and means belonging to something by its nature, which is why it implies the quality cannot be removed by better design: the risks inherent in surgery stay there however careful the surgeon. That makes it a strong claim, so do not use it where you only mean 'common' or 'frequent'. Near neighbours are 'intrinsic' and 'built-in'; 'inherit' is a different word.

a clear and deep understanding of something complicated

The preposition is always 'into': an insight into how nurses ration time, never 'insight of' or 'insight about'. It works countably and uncountably, and it collocates with provide, offer, gain and valuable. Beware its use as filler, since 'provides insights into' frequently means no more than 'tells us a little about', and examiners notice the difference.

necessary to make something complete, or, in mathematics, the result of integrating a function

Two words in one spelling, and sound will not separate them: the first syllable carries the stress in ordinary use for both, so only the grammar tells you which one you have. The adjective means forming a necessary part of a whole and takes 'to': fieldwork is integral to the degree. The mathematical noun names the result of integration, and calculus texts speak of the definite integral between two limits. Neither means 'integrated' (joined up) or 'integrity' (honesty, or wholeness).

positioned between two levels, stages or points

Language courses give learners the level sense first (intermediate, upper intermediate), but in science it names a stage partway through a process: an intermediate step, an intermediate compound, an intermediate host. Keep it away from 'intermediary', which is a person or body acting between two sides, so a broker is an intermediary and not an intermediate.

done by hand rather than automatically, or a book of instructions

As an adjective it means done by hand, which in research writing usually means done by a person rather than by software: manual coding, manual checking, manual data entry. As a noun it is the book of instructions. The Latin root for hand also gives 'manuscript' and 'manufacture', which is a useful hook. The adverb 'manually' is what you write when contrasting with automation.

fully developed or fully grown, or to become fully developed

Fully developed, of a person, an organism, a technology or an idea. British universities use it in an administrative sense every applicant meets: a mature student is one who begins a degree later than the usual age, typically over 21, and it says nothing about behaviour. As a verb it also has a financial sense, since a bond matures when it becomes payable. Noun 'maturity'.

to act between opposing sides to settle a dispute, or to carry an effect from one variable to another

To mediate, in the everyday sense, is to act between two sides in a dispute, and it takes 'between'. Statistics gives it a second life that examiners test: a mediating variable carries the effect from cause to outcome, whereas a moderating variable changes how strong that effect is. Confusing mediator with moderator changes what a model claims. 'Immediate' is this word negated, in- plus mediatus, meaning with nothing in between.

a means by which something is communicated or done, or a middle level or size

The plural is the whole lesson. For a means of communication it is 'media', which is a separate headword in sublist 7 and is now usually treated as a singular mass noun ('the media is'). For a size or level the plural is 'mediums'. Biology keeps the Latin plural too, since cells grow in a culture medium and in several media. 'Medium of instruction' names the language a school teaches in.

relating to armed forces or soldiers, or the armed forces taken as a whole

Mostly an adjective (military spending, military service, a military coup), but with 'the' it also works as a collective noun, and British usage allows either a singular or a plural verb after it. The plural 'militaries' does exist and is ordinary in comparative politics, as in the militaries of the region, but the singular with 'the' is what you will write far more often. Related words are not synonyms: a militia is an unofficial armed force, and 'militant' describes an attitude rather than an army.

very small in amount or effect, or as small as it can be

Set it against 'minimum', which is a separate headword in sublist 6. Minimal is an adjective of degree meaning very small in amount or effect: minimal risk, minimal disruption. Minimum names a floor and is used before nouns as a fixed pairing: minimum wage, minimum age, a minimum of three. So 'minimal wage' and 'minimum difference' are both errors when what you mean is the other one.

felt or done equally by two or more parties towards each other, or shared in common

Felt or done by each side towards the other: mutual respect, mutual benefit, mutual recognition. Older handbooks condemned 'a mutual friend' for 'a friend in common', but that use is now standard. The phrase to learn for argument and statistics is 'mutually exclusive', meaning two outcomes that cannot both occur, which is quite different from two claims that merely disagree.

a standard of behaviour that a group expects, or a typical benchmark value

Do not read it as a shortening of 'normal', which is the adjective and a separate headword in sublist 2. A norm is a standard: either a rule of behaviour a group expects, which is how sociology uses it, or a benchmark score for a population, which is how testing uses it. So write 'social norms', not 'social normals', and 'it is normal', not 'it is norm'. 'Normative' claims say what ought to be, not what is.

to cover part of the same area or subject as something else, or the shared part itself

Stress tells the two uses apart: the verb is stressed on the last syllable and the noun on the first. The verb takes 'with' and the noun takes 'between', which is worth drilling because literature reviews need both: this study overlaps with earlier work, there is little overlap between the two samples. The p doubles in overlapped and overlapping.

accepting what happens without acting, or, in grammar, having the subject receive the action

Two senses, and students meet both. In grammar the passive voice puts the receiver of the action first, which is why method sections use it to keep attention on the procedure rather than the researcher. Outside grammar it means accepting rather than acting, giving passive smoking, passive resistance and a passive role. Noun 'passivity', opposite 'active'.

a part or share of a larger whole

A piece of a whole, and more formal than 'part'. The trap is 'proportion', which is a ratio rather than a piece: 'a large portion of the budget' is a chunk of money, while 'the proportion of women in the sample' is a percentage. If a figure with a percent sign follows, you almost certainly want proportion. The food sense gives 'portion size'.

coming before the main part of something, and therefore provisional

It marks results as provisional, so 'preliminary findings' promises the reader that the conclusions may change once the rest of the data arrives. Use it honestly rather than as modesty. Note the division of labour with 'pilot': a pilot study is the study itself, while preliminary describes what has come out of one so far. The plural noun 'preliminaries' means the preparatory stages.

an official written plan or set of rules governing how something is done

Three worlds, one word. In research it is the written plan an ethics committee approves and the study must follow, which is why 'protocol deviation' is a reportable event. In computing it is the agreed rules for exchanging data. In diplomacy it is correct formal behaviour, and it also names treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol. The usual phrase is 'according to protocol'.

concerned with the nature or qualities of something rather than with amounts that can be measured

Learn it as one half of a pair, qualitative against quantitative, even though only qualitative is an AWL headword. Qualitative work asks what and why using words: interviews, focus groups, observation, analysed into themes. Quantitative work counts and measures, producing numbers and statistics. The hook is quality described against quantity counted, and mixed methods use both. It never means 'high quality', so 'a qualitative school' is wrong.

to improve something by making small changes to it

Improvement by small adjustments rather than by replacement, which is exactly what happens to a model, a definition, a coding scheme or an estimate as work proceeds. The industrial sense gives refined oil and refined sugar. Watch the adjective, because 'refined' applied to a person means polished or cultivated. The countable noun is 'refinement': two refinements to the model.

to make a rule, assumption or restriction less strict, or to become less tense

The sense that surprises learners is the technical one, and it is everywhere in economics and statistics: to relax an assumption, a rule, a constraint or a restriction is to make it less strict. 'If we relax the assumption of normality' does not mean the assumption takes a rest. The everyday sense of resting belongs to speech. The noun 'relaxation' serves both.

to hold something or someone back, or to keep something under control

Hold back, by force or by self-control. It sits in a trio: you restrain something that would otherwise act, restrict the amount or scope of something, and are constrained by circumstances you cannot change. The noun 'restraint' covers both self-control and an imposed limit, and the adjective 'restrained' means measured or understated, which is praise in academic prose.

a complete change in a system or society, or one complete turn around a centre

One spelling, two unrelated-looking senses that share a root meaning of turning: the overthrow of a political order, and one complete turn, as in revolutions per minute. The first has spread into 'the digital revolution' and 'the green revolution' for any sweeping change. Distinguish 'revolt', which is the uprising itself, from the lasting change a revolution names. 'Revolutionary' works for both senses.

stiff and unable to bend, or unwilling to change or be adapted

Physically stiff, or unwilling to bend on a rule. Applied to people, systems or thinking it is almost always a criticism, so it is not a neutral synonym for 'strict' or 'consistent'. The costly confusion is with 'rigorous', which is praise and means careful and thorough: a rigorous method is a good one, a rigid method is a fault. Nouns 'rigidity' and 'rigour'.

a way taken to get from one place to another, or a course towards a goal

A homophone problem. In British English it sounds exactly like 'root', while many American speakers rhyme it with 'out', and the spelling error runs in both directions: it is 'root cause' and 'grass roots', but 'en route' and 'a route into teaching'. The figurative use is common in education writing, where an apprenticeship is a route into a profession. The verb means to send by a particular path.

an imagined or predicted sequence of events, used to think through what might happen

An imagined chain of events used to reason about consequences, which is why climate and economic modelling speak of emissions scenarios and scenario planning, and why 'worst-case scenario' is fixed. The plural is 'scenarios'. Do not use it to mean 'situation' or 'case', because a scenario is hypothetical and calling a real event a scenario says the opposite of what you mean.

a round three-dimensional shape, or an area of activity, interest or influence

The geometric ball is the literal sense, but academic writing mostly uses the figurative one: an area of activity or influence. Hence the public sphere, the private sphere, the political sphere and a sphere of influence. 'The public sphere' is a term of art in social theory for the space where citizens debate. The adjective 'spherical' belongs only to the shape.

lower in rank or importance, or a person in a lower position

Adjective, noun and verb, and the verb is the one that sounds different: its final syllable is fully pronounced where the adjective and the noun swallow it. The stress itself does not move. Grammar uses it constantly: a subordinate clause cannot stand alone and hangs off a main clause, usually behind 'because', 'although' or 'which'. In an organisation a subordinate is someone lower in rank. As a verb, 'subordinate X to Y' means treat X as the less important of the two.

something added to improve or complete another thing, or to add something in that way

Noun and verb are both stressed on the first syllable, and what separates them is the last one, swallowed in the noun and fully sounded in the verb. The verb takes 'with' and means add to what is already there rather than replace it: supplement an income with evening work. The adjective every researcher needs is 'supplementary', because journals put extra tables and data in the supplementary material; American English also uses 'supplemental'.

to stop something for a period of time, or to hold something floating in liquid or air

Two senses, both frequent in academic and news prose. To stop temporarily: suspend trading, suspend a pupil, a suspended sentence, which is one not served unless the offender reoffends. And to hold in place within a liquid or in the air, which gives particles suspended in water. The noun 'suspension' carries both, plus a chemical sense. 'Suspense' is a different idea entirely.

a group of people working together on the same task

A collective noun, and British English will treat it as plural when the members are what matter, so 'the team have disagreed' is correct there while American English keeps the singular throughout. In papers 'the research team' is the standard way of saying 'we' without saying it. 'Teamwork' is one word; the phrasal verb 'team up with' is too informal for a thesis.

lasting for only a limited period rather than permanently

Lasting for a limited time, the opposite of permanent. Its lookalike is 'temporal', which means relating to time in general (temporal trends, the temporal lobe) or worldly rather than spiritual, and swapping the two changes the meaning completely. Collocations: a temporary contract, temporary accommodation, a temporary measure. The adverb 'temporarily' is regularly misspelled.

to cause something to begin suddenly, or the event or thing that causes it

To set something off suddenly, and usually something unwelcome: trigger a recession, a reaction, a debate, an alarm. It implies immediacy, so it does not suit a slow build-up. The noun names the cause as well as the part of a gun, and psychology now uses it for anything that provokes distress. The g doubles in triggered and triggering.

to join separate parts or groups into a single whole

To make separate parts into one whole, used of countries, systems and theories, and the noun 'unification' is the form history books use. Compare 'unite', which is more about people joining in common action, and 'united', which survives in names. Spelling follows the -fy rule, so the y becomes ie before an ending: unifies, unified, but unifying keeps it.

to break a rule, law, agreement or right

The formal verb for breaking something that was meant to hold: a law, a right, an agreement, a rule, an assumption. Statistics uses it neutrally and often, as in 'the residuals violate the assumption of constant variance'. Elsewhere it carries a heavy moral charge and one sense refers to sexual assault, so keep it for rules and standards. Noun 'violation'.

the ability to see, or an imagined idea of how the future should be

Three senses share the word: eyesight, as in impaired sight; a picture of how the future should be, as in a strategy document; and something seen in a dream. Policy and business writing lean on the second so heavily that it often carries no content, and a concrete aim is nearly always better. 'Visionary' praises a person, 'visual' relates to seeing, and only the first sense is medical.