Academic English Vocabulary: 400 Words for Writing
The words are not hard to understand. They are hard to use correctly.
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| 表 | 裏 |
|---|---|
| analyse | to examine something in detail to understand it (verb). Word family: analysis, analytical, analyst. American spelling analyze. Example: The study analysed data from 400 households. |
| evidence | information supporting a conclusion (noun). Uncountable: a piece of evidence, not an evidence. Example: There is little evidence for this claim. |
| assert | to state confidently (verb). Often implies the claim still needs support. Example: He asserts that the trend will continue. |
| cause | something that produces an effect (noun). Distinguish from correlation. Example: Poverty is a cause, not merely a correlate. |
| result in | to cause (verb). Result in a cause; result from an effect. Example: The delay resulted in higher costs. |
| approximately | roughly (adverb). More formal than about in academic writing. Example: Approximately 40 per cent responded. |
| significant | important; statistically meaningful (adjective). In statistics it has a precise technical meaning. Example: The difference was statistically significant. |
| disparity | a large difference (noun). Common collocation: a disparity between. Example: The disparity between regions has widened. |
| incorporate | to include as part of a whole (verb). Word family: incorporation. Example: The revised model incorporates regional data. |
| policy | a course of action adopted by an organisation (noun). Uncountable when general: government policy. Example: The policy was reversed within a year. |
| migration | movement of people between places (noun). Word family: migrate, migrant. Example: Internal migration accelerated after the war. |
| reliability | the extent to which a measure is consistent (noun). Distinguish from validity. Example: The reliability of self-reported data is limited. |
| ambiguous | open to more than one interpretation (adjective). Word family: ambiguity. Example: The wording of the question was ambiguous. |
| integral | essential to completeness (adjective). Takes to: integral to the design. Example: Fieldwork was integral to the project. |
| albeit | although (conjunction). Formal; introduces a concession phrase. Example: Growth continued, albeit at a slower rate. |
| thereby | by that means (adverb). Usually followed by a participle. Example: Costs were cut, thereby freeing funds for training. |
| provided that | on condition that (conjunction). Introduces a condition. Example: The method works provided that the sample is random. |
| apparent | seeming; clearly visible (adjective). Two senses; context decides which is meant. Example: It soon became apparent that the model was wrong. |
| representative | typical of a larger group (adjective). Common collocation: a representative sample. Example: The panel was not representative of the population. |
| substantially | to a large degree (adverb). Word family: substantial. Example: Costs rose substantially after 2020. |
| simultaneously | at the same time (adverb). Word family: simultaneous. Example: Both changes occurred simultaneously. |
| clarify | to make clearer (verb). Word family: clarification, clarity. Example: The author clarifies the term in a footnote. |
| attribute (noun) | a quality or feature (noun). Stress on the first syllable as a noun. Example: Reliability is the most valued attribute. |
| publish | to make available in print or online (verb). Word family: publication. Example: The findings were published last year. |
| speculate | to form a theory without firm evidence (verb). Word family: speculation, speculative. Example: The authors speculate about possible mechanisms. |
| accumulate | to gather over time (verb). Word family: accumulation. Example: Evidence has accumulated steadily since 2015. |
| exacerbate | to make worse (verb). Formal; common with problem, tension. Example: The delay exacerbated an already difficult situation. |
| allocate resources | to distribute means among competing uses (phrase). A standard collocation in economics writing. Example: Governments must allocate resources under constraint. |
| indicator | a measure that shows a condition (noun). Common collocation: a leading indicator. Example: Unemployment is a lagging indicator. |
| preliminary stage | the first part of a longer process (phrase). A standard collocation in research writing. Example: The preliminary stage lasted three months. |
このデッキについて
Academic vocabulary fails in production, not comprehension. Every reader knows roughly what comprise, imply and significant mean, and every writer still gets them wrong: is comprised of instead of comprises, imply where infer belongs, significant used loosely in a paper that also reports statistical significance. The gap is never the definition. It is the word family, the preposition, and the neighbouring word that so often trips people up. This deck covers 400 words of academic English. Every card gives the meaning and part of speech, then one line of the thing that actually goes wrong — the plural of criterion, the preposition after contribute, the difference between effective and efficient — followed by a sentence in the register you are aiming for. Cards are tagged by function: research and method, argument and evidence, cause and change, quantity and comparison, structure and process, policy and society, linking and signalling, and academic writing itself. Import it and the deck joins your spaced-repetition schedule, and what stays in rotation is the set you can recognise but not yet write.
よくある質問
- Does importing this deck use AI credits?
- No. Importing uses the saved deck as published; it does not run AI generation or use AI credits. The complete deck can therefore be imported on the free plan.
- What happens if I import the deck twice?
- Nothing is duplicated. Cards you already have are skipped and only newly added cards come across. Including re-imports after deleting, each official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I use it on the web app and the phone app?
- Yes. The deck is added to your account, so the same cards and the same progress are available in the web app, the iOS app and the Android app.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.
- What is in the deck?
- 73 on research and method, 71 on argument and evidence, 54 on quantity and comparison, 45 on policy and society, 43 on cause and change, 42 on structure and process, 37 on linking and signalling, 22 on academic writing itself and 13 on problems and limitations, 400 in total. One word per card, so nothing appears twice.
- Why does each card include a usage note?
- Because the definition is rarely what goes wrong. Criteria is a plural, contribute takes to, the whole comprises the parts and is never comprised of them, and a writer who implies is not a reader who infers. Those are the details that mark writing as non-academic, and they are what the note on each card carries.
- Is this useful for IELTS and TOEFL?
- Yes, particularly for the writing and speaking tasks, where examiners look for range and accuracy rather than rare words. The linking and signalling group maps directly onto the discourse markers those rubrics reward, and the hedging words — suggest, indicate, tentative, arguably — are how you make a claim you can defend.
- British or American spelling?
- British spellings appear on the front, with the American variant named in the note wherever the two differ. Both are accepted in academic writing as long as you are consistent, so pick one and let the notes remind you which forms belong together.
Word selection draws on the vocabulary common to academic writing across disciplines; it is not an official list from any examining body or corpus project. Every definition, usage note and example sentence is written by Memly. British spellings are shown first, with American variants noted. Scope reviewed 2026-08-17.