Academic Word List - Group 8

Posted by Venture English on April 3, 2016

This is the eighth group of the Academic Word List (AWL). This list of words represents over 500 words that occur frequently in academic level material such as journals, articles, course books and lectures. These words can prove extremely helpful to individuals who are preparing for high-level exams such as the IELTS, TOEFL, or GRE.

In order to benefit the most from this list, it is necessary not just to memorize the words but to actually learn how to use each word as well as be comfortable with the various forms of each word. For instance, the 6th word on the list is, "arbitrary." This word is an adjective and is defined as: "subject to individual will or judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon one's discretion."(*) An example sentence could be,

"She made an arbitrary decision to cut her hair without asking her husband."

Here you can see that "arbitrary" is affecting the noun "decision."

However, it is also necessary to know that this word appears as an adverb, arbitrarily. We can use the same sentence but modify it for our example.

"She arbitrarily decided to cut her hair without asking her husband."

Here you can see that "arbitrarily" is affecting the verb "decided."

There is also a noun form of the word which is "arbitrariness." Again, we can modify our original sentence and use this word.

"The arbitrariness of her decision to cut her hair was confusing to her husband."

So you can see that this list of words can be extremely helpful especially if you download the list, and write sentences for each word as well as for the various forms of each word.
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Academic Word List 8 by Ryan Vars

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