Boost Your Vocabulary: Cambridge IELTS 9 Vocabulary Practice

Vocabulary practice flashcards identifying key terms and synonyms derived from Cambridge IELTS 9 academic reading passages.

Synthetic

Artificial, man-made.

Curiosity

The desire to know about something.

Stumble on/across/upon something

To find or discover something by chance and unexpectedly.

Solidify

Strengthen, to make an agreement, plan, attitude etc more definite and less likely to change.

Eminent

Famous, prominent.

Viable

Feasible, possible, successful.

Extra-terrestrial

Relating to things that exist outside the earth.

Intermittently

Sporadically; stopping and starting often and for short periods.

Tenuous

Uncertain, weak, vague.

Inconceivable

Unthinkable, unimaginable, unbelievable.

Enterprising

Having the ability to think of new activities or ideas and make them work.

Amphibious

Able to live both on land and in water.

Impairment

A condition in which a part of a person’s mind or body is damaged or does not work well.

Reverberation

Echo; a loud sound that is heard again and again as it is sent back from different surfaces.

Vulnerable

Weak; someone who can be easily harmed or hurt.

Promulgate

To spread an idea or belief to as many people as possible.

Polymath

Someone who has a lot of knowledge about many different subjects.

Parallax

The effect by which the position or direction of an object appears to change when the object is seen from different positions.

Supersede

To replace; if a new idea, product, or method becomes used instead because it is more modern or effective.

Iconoclast

Someone who attacks established ideas and customs.

Hardwired

If an attitude, way of behaving etc is a natural part of a person’s character that they are born with and cannot change.

Social cognition

Concerned with the study of the thought processes through which humans attain understanding of self, others, and their environment.

Invective

Rude and insulting words that someone says when they are very angry.

Polemic

A written or spoken statement that strongly criticizes or defends a particular idea, opinion, or person.

Prescriptivism

The view that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others, and that this ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community.

Codify

To arrange laws, principles, facts etc in a system.

Cavitation

The forming of gas bubbles in a liquid, caused by changes in pressure.

Superfluous

Surplus, unnecessary, excessive, redundant.

Prodigious

Extraordinary, phenomenal, unusual, remarkable, impressive.

Longitudinal study

Relating to the development of something over a period of time.

Veracity

Truth, accuracy, reliability.

Tangible

If something is tangible, you can touch or feel it.

Transitory

Continuing or existing for only a short time.