VOCABULARY for IELTS
Divisive: Tending to cause disagreement or hostility between people.
Sentence – He employed a mediation model that eliminated the divisive win-lose element from arguments and substituted the goal of clarification.
Burgeoning: Begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish.
Sentence – Unfortunately, the burgeoning seal numbers in Boston Harbor bring the same problem seal abundance has brought elsewhere: human resentment.
Under mining: The action or process of lessening or effectiveness, power or ability of someone or something.
Sentence – Car ownership and use grow continuously, severely undermining the government’s fragile attempts to improve the environment.
Negate: make ineffective, nullify.
Sentence – A thinking plan to negate capillary perpetual motion is presented from thinking a physical question again.
Walking a tightrope: to be in difficult situation in which a very small mistake could have very bad results.
Sentence – She sometimes felt she was walking a tightrope, wanting to be friendly with Therese, and yet terrified of upsetting Karl.
Defiant: The feeling of attitude of despising someone or something.
Sentence – With a last defiant gesture, they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.
Outmanoeuvre: evade (an opponent) by moving faster or with greater ability.
Sentence – In the negotiations, he outmanoeuvred his rivals by offering a higher price.
Relentlessly: in an unceasingly intense or harsh way
Sentence – He campaigned relentlessly to bring charges of corruption against former members of the government.
Ritualistic: Relating to or characteristic of rituals followed as a part of a religious or solemn ceremony
Sentence – That is the unuttered matter that underlies the ritualistic argument over arms sales.
Ritualistic: Relating to or characteristic of rituals followed as a part of a religious or solemn ceremony
Sentence – That is the unuttered matter that underlies the ritualistic argument over arms sales.
Between a rock and hard place: to be in a very difficult situation and to have to make a hard decision
Sentence – “the alternative was equally untenable—she was caught between a rock and a hard place“
Between a rock and hard place: to be in a very difficult situation and to have to make a hard decision
Sentence – “the alternative was equally untenable—she was caught between a rock and a hard place“
Forged: copied fraudulently; fake.
Sentence – Strategic alliances are being forged with major European companies.
Foster: encourage the development of (something, especially something desirable).
Sentence – The mayor has tried to foster civic pride by having a new public library built in the city.
Linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure.
Sentence – Linguistics embraces a diverse range of subjects such as phonetics and stylistics.
Rummage: search unsystematically and untidily through something.
Sentence – Every time a box came in for the rummage sale, I was downstairs with my flashlight.
Plethora: a large or excessive amount of something.
Sentence – I handed over a plethora of retirement gifts from her colleagues and wished her a long and happy retirement.
Erudite: having or showing great knowledge or learning.
Sentence – Women and men sharing the service and much erudite discussion of the Torah text.
Flunked out: to be dismissed from a school or college for failure.
Sentence – Twenty students have been flunked out and had to leave the school.
Grapple: engage in a close fight or struggle without weapons; wrestle.
Sentence – There have been four attempts to grapple with these tensions through restructuring or internal reorganisation.
Brag: say something in a boastful manner.
Sentence – The 35-year veteran of Capitol Hill cannot brag that he knows how to pass bills through the Senate.
Self- inflicted: A self-inflicted wound or injury is one that you do to yourself deliberately.
Sentence – The existence of self- inflicted habit is the significant diagnostic evidence of oral factitial ulcers.
