Vocabulary For IELTS

emulate: to copy something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have.

Sentence – But your loving relationship with Adam is something that Sabrina and I hope to emulate.

enervating: making you feel weak and without energy.

Sentence – The drugs they took were frequently enervating and prevented them from participating in the community and accessing the help and support needed for a full, active and satisfying life.

ephemeral: lasting for only a short time.

Sentence – Some were, of course, ephemeral, including books and articles written in the 1930s when he lived by his pen.

evanescent: lasting for only a short time, then disappearing quickly and being forgotten.

Sentence – Instead, their role was played by evanescent photons continually popping into existence around the strong pulse.

exemplary: very good and suitable to be copied by other people.

Sentence – Alexander served two exemplary terms as Tennessee governor; the highly respected Senator Lugar is a leading expert on foreign policy.

extenuating: causing a wrong act to be judged less seriously by giving reasons for it.

Sentence – Cases of illness and other extenuating circumstances that may have affected a student’s performance will be dealt with by a personal tutor.

florid: with too much decoration or detail.

Sentence – A darkly florid officer with black moustache walked briskly through the debris, gazing round as though looking for some one.

forbearance: the quality of being patient and being able to forgive someone or control yourself in a difficult situation.

Sentence – Pressed beyond the limits of forbearance, our army fought back resolutely and dealt telling blows to the enemy.

fortitude: courage over a long period.

Sentence – The policeman, with unbelievable fortitude, was able to disarm the attacker before collapsing from his wounds.

fortuitous: (of something that is to your advantage) not planned, happening by chance.

Sentence – The allusion to clouds is anything but fortuitous, emphasizing as it does the link between the sound of drums and thunder.

foster: to take care of a child, usually for a limited time, without being the child’s legal parent.

Sentence – He has spent most of his life being shunted between his mother, father and various foster families.

fraught: filled with.

Sentence – The growth of any new-born thing is fraught with contradictions and struggle.

frugal: careful when using money or food, or (of a meal) cheap or small in amount.

Sentence – He found the president eating a frugal meal and using pottery dishes and knife, fork, and spoon of iron.

hackneyed: A hackneyed phrase or idea has been said or used so often that it has become boring and has no meaning.

Sentence – The singular storyline puts a twist on a hackneyed subject, providing fresh and provocative entertainment.

haughty: unfriendly and seeming to consider yourself better than other people.

Sentence – Under different circumstances, this would have sounded patronizing, a wilted bouquet tossed by a haughty victor.

hedonist: someone who tries to have as much pleasure as possible, according to the belief that the most important thing in life is to enjoy yourself.

Sentence – He is at once a hedonist who preaches prudence and temperance, a theist who rejects divine intervention and the survival of the soul, and an atomist who upholds both mechanism and free will.