IELTS vocabulary for Writing: Task 1 and Task 2 phrases
Quick answer
Good IELTS Writing vocabulary is precise, academic in register and correct in form, not rare. Learn it by task: verbs and approximations for the Task 1 description, and phrases for position, cause, solution, concession and hedging in Task 2. Swap informal words for neutral academic ones, check word forms such as economic and economical, and avoid copying the question's words. IELTS publishes no word list and no count per band.
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Most Writing vocabulary advice is a list of topic words. Topic words matter, but a candidate who knows “pollution” and “unemployment” can still lose marks by describing a chart with “go up a lot” or by writing “kids” and “get” in an essay. This guide sorts Writing vocabulary by task and by job: what to say in Task 1, what to say in Task 2, which words belong in a written register, and which errors undo a good range. For vocabulary by subject, use the vocabulary pages and the Task 2 topics answer.
Key takeaways
- Learn Writing vocabulary by task and by job: describing change, comparing, giving a position, explaining cause, suggesting a solution, hedging.
- Write in a neutral academic register: no contractions, no “you” for people in general, no spoken fillers.
- A precise word beats a long one, and a plain correct word beats a rare one used wrongly.
- Check word forms: economy, economic and economical are three different words.
- IELTS publishes no word list and no count per band, so build your own from reliable reading and check it.
What IELTS says about Writing vocabulary
Lexical Resource is one of four equally weighted Writing criteria, according to IELTS.org’s Academic Writing format page and its scoring page, which this site last checked on 1 October 2026. The same format page asks for an academic or semi-formal and neutral style in both tasks, and for connected prose, not notes.
The public descriptors do not publish a word list or a number of words. This site’s Writing explorer puts them in plain terms. At band 6 the range is wide enough for the task, and some less ordinary words are tried but not always quite right. At band 7 you choose flexibly and precisely, show some sense of register, and make only occasional slips in choice, spelling and word form. At band 8 uncommon words are used with skill. Spelling and word formation sit inside this criterion, because Writing is read. Nothing here promises a band for knowing any set of words.
Task 1: the language of description
IELTS.org says Task 1 asks you to describe, summarise or explain the information in your own words, in at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. So the vocabulary is the vocabulary of reporting data: change, comparison, proportion and, for diagrams, process and place. All the figures below are invented.
| Job | Useful language | Invented example |
|---|---|---|
| Rising | rise, increase, climb, grow, surge | Visitor numbers climbed from 20,000 to 35,000. |
| Falling | fall, decline, decrease, drop, dip | Rainfall dipped in March before recovering. |
| Staying level | remain stable, level off, plateau | Library visits remained stable at around 400 a week. |
| Size of change | slight, steady, sharp, dramatic | There was a sharp rise in cycling in 2019. |
| Highest and lowest | peak at, reach a high of, bottom out at | Attendance peaked at 90 in July. |
| Approximation | roughly, just over, nearly, about a third | Nearly half of the students walked to class. |
| Proportion | the vast majority, a small minority, a quarter | A small minority travelled by train. |
| Comparison | whereas, higher than, the same as, twice as many | Bus users were twice as many as cyclists. |
| Process | first, is then, is followed by, finally | The grain is then cleaned and stored. |
| Maps | to the north of, was replaced by, was converted into | The field was converted into a car park. |
Two cautions. First, the size word is a claim the reader can check: “sharp” and “slight” are not interchangeable. Second, an approximation word is a decision, not a hedge for laziness. “Roughly 30 per cent” is right for 29.6, and wrong for 41. The Task 1 charts, graphs and tables guide shows how to choose what to report, and the collocations guide covers pairs such as “rose sharply” in more detail.
Task 2: vocabulary by job
In an essay each phrase does a job in the argument. Learn them by the job, and keep each one inside a sentence you wrote yourself.
- Giving a position: “I firmly believe that”, “this essay argues that”, “in my view”, “the evidence points towards”.
- Cause: “result from”, “be attributed to”, “stem from”, “be a major factor in”.
- Effect: “lead to”, “give rise to”, “have a damaging effect on”, “contribute to”.
- Solution: “tackle the problem”, “introduce measures to”, “encourage people to”, “expand public transport”.
- Concession: “admittedly”, “it is true that”, “although this may be so”, “this is not to deny that”.
- Hedging: “tends to”, “in many cases”, “is likely to”, “can sometimes”, “there is a case for”.
- Certainty, used with care: “clearly”, “undoubtedly”, “without question”. Use these only when the point is truly beyond argument.
Hedging deserves a note, because it is the habit that most separates an academic voice from a spoken one. “Cities are noisy” is a claim about every city. “Large cities tend to be noisier than small towns” is a claim a reader can accept. Hedged generalisations are safer and read as more careful. They are not weaker: the writer has shown what the claim covers.
The linking words guide covers the joining words between these phrases. Linkers belong to Coherence and Cohesion, and the phrases above belong to Lexical Resource, so a good paragraph needs both.
Academic and informal pairs
The format page asks for an academic or semi-formal and neutral style. In practice this means choosing the neutral word where speech would choose the casual one. Contractions and “you” for people in general are the quickest fixes.
| Informal | Academic or neutral |
|---|---|
| a lot of | a large number of, a great deal of |
| kids | children |
| get | obtain, receive, become (by meaning) |
| show | demonstrate, illustrate, indicate |
| bad | harmful, damaging, undesirable |
| big | considerable, significant, substantial |
| think about | consider, examine |
| find out | discover, establish |
| need | require |
| enough | sufficient |
| but (opening a sentence) | however |
| so (opening a sentence) | therefore |
| can’t, don’t | cannot, do not |
| you can see that | it can be seen that, the chart shows that |
| lots of people | many people, a majority of people |
“Get” in “get worse” becomes “worsen” or “become worse”, but “obtain” would be wrong there, because it only fits things you can acquire, such as information. Replace by meaning, one phrase at a time, and see the synonyms and paraphrasing guide for the ways a swap goes wrong.
Precision over length
A longer word is not a better one. “Utilise” in a sentence that needed “use” is a trap the band 6 wording on this site names, along with a thesaurus word swapped in for a plain one that was already right. Compare:
Wordy: “A lot of people who live in large cities have the problem of getting to work on time.”
Precise: “Many urban commuters struggle to arrive on time.”
The second is shorter, and every word is doing work. Precision means the word fits the exact meaning: “decline” when a figure falls over years, “collapse” only when it falls abruptly and far. Ask of each content word whether a more exact one exists. If you are not sure of it, keep the plain one.
Word families
Many Writing errors are word-form errors, and Lexical Resource covers them. The family has to be learnt as a set, with the right member for the slot.
| Word | Family and a correct sentence |
|---|---|
| economy | economy (noun): “The economy grew slowly.” |
| economic | economic (adjective, about the economy): “Economic growth slowed.” |
| economical | economical (adjective, using little fuel or energy): “A small car is more economical to run.” |
| depend | depend (verb), dependence (noun), dependent (adjective): “Many farms are dependent on rainfall.” |
| analyse | analyse (verb), analysis (noun, plural analyses), analyst (person) |
| decide | decision (noun), decisive (adjective): “The decision was made quickly.” |
| success | succeed (verb), successful (adjective), successfully (adverb) |
The classic error is “economical” where “economic” is meant: “economical growth” is wrong, and “economic growth” is right. Another is “advice” and “advise”, a noun and a verb. When you learn a word, write down its noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms, and test yourself on which fits a gap.
Errors that undo a good range
- Rare words used wrongly. The band 5 wording on this site lists an academic word seen only in print as a trap, and the band 7 wording lists a rare word with the wrong partner, such as “make a research”. Use a word only if you could write three correct sentences with it.
- Repeating the question’s words. Copying the question’s whole phrase is not your own language. Change what can sensibly be changed, and keep the key terms the topic needs.
- Idioms in an essay. The band 7 wording on this site lists idiomatic phrases in an academic essay as a trap, because they read as out of place. Save them for conversation.
- The same adjective in every paragraph. The band 5 wording names this: the safe word, repeated. Keep two or three alternatives for each of your common ideas, such as important, essential, vital.
- Spelling ignored. Spelling is part of this criterion. Proofread for it as well as for grammar.
How to build Writing vocabulary
- Take one Task 1 chart and one Task 2 question each week, and underline every content word you used. Mark the ones used more than twice.
- For each marked word, find two alternatives in a learner’s dictionary and check the partner words of each.
- Keep a notebook by job, not by topic: one page for change, one for cause, one for hedging.
- Write each new phrase into a sentence of your own, with the right preposition.
- After a week, rewrite an old answer using the new phrases, and compare. Keep only the changes that read better.
IELTS publishes no Writing word list, so a learner’s dictionary is the check.
Frequently asked questions
Does IELTS publish a vocabulary list for Writing?
No. IELTS publishes no vocabulary list for Writing and no count of words per band. The public descriptors describe how well you choose and control words, not how many rare ones you know. Use any list, including those on this site, as practice material and not as a checklist for the test.
Should I use difficult words to get a higher band?
Not for their own sake. The Writing descriptors on this site treat a thesaurus word swapped in for a plain one that was already right as a trap at band 6, and reaching for the rarest word when a common one is more exact as a trap at band 8. Precision is what the higher bands describe.
Can I use contractions and "you" in an IELTS essay?
IELTS.org asks for an academic or semi-formal and neutral style on Writing Task 1 and Task 2 of the Academic test. Contractions and "you" meaning people in general belong to speech, so write "does not" and "people" or "a student" instead. It is a matter of register, and a reader notices it.
Can I use the same words as the question in my answer?
Some words have no sensible substitute, and repeating them is fine. Copying whole phrases is another matter: IELTS.org asks you to describe the Task 1 information in your own words, and the band 4 trap on this site's descriptors lists reusing the prompt's nouns because nothing else is available. Rephrase where a good alternative exists.
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