English words with meaning

Useful everyday words include reliable (able to be trusted), convenient (easy or suitable), afford (to have enough money or time), postpone (to move to a later time) and appreciate (to be grateful for). Each word on this page comes with a short meaning and a sentence showing how to use it, grouped from everyday to advanced.

Learn words in context, not as bare lists: read the meaning, then the example sentence, then write one sentence of your own. Revise a small set daily rather than a long list once, and group words by theme so related words reinforce each other. Meeting a word again in real reading is what moves it into long-term memory.

Words like meticulous (very careful), pragmatic (practical), candid (honest), resilient (quick to recover), concise (short and clear) and ubiquitous (everywhere) make your English precise. Fluency is less about rare words than about using the exact word for the idea, so learn each with a sentence and use it.

Use spaced repetition and active recall. Study a word with its meaning and an example, then test yourself later by recalling the word from its meaning — which is exactly what the quiz on this page does. Re-reading a list feels productive but fixes little; retrieving a word from memory is what makes it stick.

A vocabulary of around 3,000–5,000 common words covers most everyday conversation, and roughly 8,000–9,000 word families supports comfortable reading of newspapers and books. You do not need to memorise a dictionary — knowing the most frequent words well, and using them accurately, matters far more than collecting rare ones.

Five to ten words learned well beats fifty skimmed once. Learn each with its meaning and an example sentence, then revise the same set over the next few days before adding more. A steady 7 words a day, properly revised, is about 200 a month — far more than you will retain from cramming.

Affect is usually the verb — to influence something (“Noise can affect your focus”). Effect is usually the noun — the result (“The medicine had a quick effect”). A quick test: if you can put an or the in front of it, you want effect.

Advice is the noun — the suggestion itself (“She gave good advice”). Advise is the verb — the act of suggesting (“I advise you to rest”). The one with the s sound is the action; the one with the ss/“iss” sound is the thing.

To add a point: moreover, furthermore, in addition. To contrast: however, nevertheless, whereas, in contrast. To show a result: therefore, consequently, thus, as a result. Using these correctly makes an argument read as one connected whole rather than a list of separate sentences.

Ambiguous (having more than one meaning), alleviate (to make less severe), coherent (clear and logical), inevitable (certain to happen) and substantial (large in amount) are common “difficult” words. They feel hard only until you meet them in a sentence — which is why every entry here carries one.

Copy the pattern of the example first, then change the details. Notice the word’s part of speech — whether it is a noun, verb or adjective — because that decides where it can sit. Knowing that advice is a noun and advise is a verb, for instance, stops the most common mistakes.

Precise everyday verbs and adjectives carry conversation: manage, handle, appreciate, reliable, convenient, essential. Reach for the exact word instead of a vague one — “that is essential” rather than “that is really important” — and you sound clearer and more natural.

Yes. A word learned as a bare definition is easy to forget and easy to misuse; a word learned inside a sentence carries its grammar, its typical partners and its tone with it. That is why every word on this page has an example — and why the quiz tests recall, not just recognition.

Vocabulary is the words you know; grammar is the rules for putting them together. You need both, and they support each other: knowing a word’s part of speech is where vocabulary and grammar meet. Widen your words here, then see how they behave in a sentence on the parts of speech and how verbs change over time with the English tenses.

Yes, indirectly. The DET has no “vocabulary” section, but a wider, more precise vocabulary lifts the vocabulary-heavy tasks — Read & Select rewards recognising real words on sight, Fill in the Blanks rewards the exact word, and richer word choice raises your Writing and Speaking subscores. This is vocabulary that feeds the test, not a DET drill.

By use, not alphabetically, so related words reinforce each other — 22 themed groups covering everyday, work, travel, technology, food, health, money, nature, home, study and time words, plus people, feelings, describing, actions, advanced, academic, linking and commonly-confused sets. Use the search box to jump to any word or meaning, and the quiz to test what you have learned. To study by difficulty instead, use the level lists: basic (A1–A2), intermediate (B1–B2) and advanced (C1–C2).