Ultimate IELTS Vocabulary

Handbook

Ultimate IELTS Vocabulary Handbook

IELTS Vocabulary
Keyword (low lexis
value)
Examples
Bad

Similar expressions (high

lexis value - for writing)

Similar expressions (high

lexis value - for speaking)

Abominable, deplorable,
Not good, evil, wicked,
inferior, unsatisfactory,
immoral, mean
inadequate, malign,
malignant, negative,
terrible
He was an abominable person, but this must not minimize the scale of Hitlers
guilt. (Source: Washington Post, Oct. 21, 2015)
It is one front in the employees effort to improve what they say
are deplorable working conditions. (New York Times, Nov. 27, 2015)
The idea that African-American students are somehow inherently
intellectually inferior from other students is despicable," Reid said on the
Senate floor. (US News, Dec. 10, 2015)
"The state of our flying systems remains unsatisfactory," the German army's
chief of staff General Volker Wieker was quoted as saying on Wednesday.(BBC,
Dec.2, 2015)
It feels as though more and more teens are comparing themselves to social
media and YouTube and feeling inadequate. (Time, Oct. 19, 2015)
For some, any descriptor reads like a euphemism for the uglier slurs used in the
past to malign immigrants and Latinos in particular. (The Guardian, Dec. 16,
2015)
Anderson will work with Clair Bifro, malignant hematology and bone marrow
transplant social worker at the institute, to lead the study locally. (USA Today,
March 17, 2014)
There has also been a smaller yet still statistically significant rise in the
frequency of negative words, such as disappointing and pessimistic. (Nature,
Dec. 13, 2015)