Academic vocabulary, word families and collocations

By the end you’ll be able to

Recognise and produce word families and affixes (-tion, -ity, -ive, -ize, -al, un-, dis-, re-) with the correct part of speech

Learn high-frequency academic vocabulary (analyze, significant, approach, factor, evidence, contribute) together with its common collocations

Use topic vocabulary for history, the arts, business and economics, life, physical and social sciences, and campus services

Choose precise, idiomatic words instead of vague general ones in writing and speaking

What the exam asks

The exam tests vocabulary in four main ways:

Recognizing the correct word form: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.
Completing or interpreting academic words in context: especially in Complete the Words and Read an Academic Passage.
Using natural collocations: combinations like analyze data, strong evidence, or make a contribution.
Choosing precise language in Writing and Speaking instead of vague words like good, bad, thing, or a lot.

Typical places vocabulary matters:

Reading: restoring missing letters, answering vocabulary-in-context questions, understanding topic words fast.
Listening: catching campus and academic vocabulary in one hearing.
Writing: building grammatical sentences and using a wider, more accurate range.
Speaking: repeating exactly in Listen and Repeat and sounding precise in Take an Interview.

A word family gives you multiple forms from one core meaning. TOEFL often tests whether you can choose the form that fits the sentence frame.

\text{article} + (\text{adjective}) + \text{noun}

Root	Noun	Verb	Adjective	Common use
analyze	analysis	analyze	analytical	analyze data; conduct an analysis
signify	significance	signify	significant	significant result; signify change
approach	approach	approach	approachable / methodological	research approach
factor	factor	factor in	factual / factor-based (rare)	key factor; contributing factor
evidence	evidence	—	evident / evidential	strong evidence; it is evident
contribute	contribution	contribute	contributory	contribute to; make a contribution

Affix	Function	Example	TOEFL use
-tion	makes nouns	contribute → contribution	after articles, after adjectives
-ity	makes abstract nouns	stable → stability	in cause/effect writing
-ive	makes adjectives	act → active	before nouns: active role
-ize	makes verbs	modern → modernize	after modals: can modernize
-al	often makes adjectives/nouns	region → regional	regional market
un-	negative	unclear	opposite meaning
dis-	negative/reverse	disagree, disconnect	contrast or reversal
re-	again/back	rebuild, reconsider	process or repetition

Word	Strong collocations	Weak / less natural choices
analyze	analyze data, analyze trends, analyze results	analyze a problem deeply good
significant	significant difference, significant role, statistically significant	very important change thing
approach	take an approach, traditional approach, practical approach	do an approach
factor	key factor, contributing factor, risk factor	big reason factor
evidence	strong evidence, clear evidence, evidence suggests	many evidences
contribute	contribute to growth, contribute significantly, make a contribution	contribute for growth

Area	Useful words
History	empire, reform, settlement, migration, primary source
Arts	composition, technique, audience, visual style, performance
Business/economics	consumer demand, revenue, productivity, investment, market trend
Life science	species, habitat, adaptation, nutrient, ecosystem
Physical science	particle, energy, surface, reaction, density
Social science	survey, behavior, policy, demographic, inequality
Campus services	registrar, advising, deadline, workshop, scholarship, maintenance