About the vocabulary

The sections

In the vocabulary there are fifteen sections which are subdivided into more than one hundred and thirty word lists. In total these contain over 6,800 entries and comprehensive coverage of English usage in both the United States and the United Kingdom is included. The vocabulary sections and lists are as follows:

  1. The human body

    Head and face; mouth and neck; speech and sound; body; arm and hand; foot and leg; skin; motion and rest; physical shape and appearance; senses; health and sickness (general); diseases and illnesses; hospital.

    View this section for free as adapted for Japanese speakers

  2. Life in general

    Family and relations; life in general; love and sex; marriage; death.

  3. Home

    Property; construction; tools and materials; the house; heating and lighting; furniture; bedroom and sleeping; bathroom; cleaning.

  4. Food

    Meals and cooking (general); drinking; breakfast; bread and cakes; snacks; savoury/savory foods; vegetables; fruit.

  5. Clothes

    Clothes (general); articles and pieces of clothing; personal things; dressmaking; laundry.

  6. Learning

    Education (general); classroom; the alphabet; grammar and language; literature; journalism; history; geography and the compass; mathematics; science; computing; art; music; radio and television; cinema and theatre/theater.

  7. Sport and leisure

    Sport (general); ball sports (general); cricket, football and rugby; baseball and football; racket sports; indoor sports; outdoor sports; water sports; tourism.

  8. Public life, work and society

    Economics; government; politics; religion; industry; business; war; crime; law; money; shops and stores; banking; shopping (general); town and city.

  9. Transport and communication

    The road; driving; vehicles; the car; rail travel; air travel; sea travel; post/mail; telephone.

  10. Measurements

    Numbers; ordinals; fractions and decimals; quantity (general); quantity (specific); distance and direction (general); distance (specific).

  11. Time

    Days, months, seasons and the year; seasonal and religious festivals; time (general); time (watch); adverbs of time.

  12. Places and nationalities

    Countries and continents; world languages; world cities; world features; nationality; adjectives of nationality.

  13. Nature

    The universe; weather; the natural world (land); the natural world (sea); animal kingdom (general); animals (domestic); animals (wild); birds; insects; fish and sea creatures; garden (general); trees; flowers and plants; agriculture; the environment; minerals and mining; colours/colors.

  14. Exclamations and phrases

    Exclamations and set phrases (general); greetings, farewells and best wishes; surprise and warnings; politeness; agreements and disagreements.

  15. Miscellaneous

    General adjectives and nouns (positive); general adjectives and nouns (negative); general verbs; adverbs of manner and degree; conjunctions; prepositions.

A knowledge of the majority of the vocabulary is essential for anyone who wishes to become fluent in English. A lack of familiarity with the words and phrases found within it will seriously impair the linguistic range of the student.

The lists have been compiled according to subject matter, although the division between them is largely artificial, and no word has been repeated unless the word has distinctly different meanings. Words have been grouped under headings where they are most frequently used in everyday speech, so that "castle", for example, is found under 'Town and city' rather than under 'War'.

The vocabulary follows the Roman alphabet:
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Abbreviations

A limited number of abbreviations are used throughout the text:

UK: United Kingdom.
This includes the English spoken in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
US: United States.
This includes the English spoken in the United States of America.
pl: plural.
The vast majority of plural nouns are formed by adding an "s" to the singular noun, eg "boy" > "boys" and thus these plurals have not been referred to in the text. However, where the plural is irregular, these have been shown in brackets, eg "child" > "children".

Regional and national differences

There are minor regional differences in English usage within the United Kingdom (for example in Scotland and northern England) and in the United States (for example in the southern states). In addition, there are further national differences to be heard throughout the English-speaking world, such as in Australia, New Zealand and India. There is also a very significant body of slang and domestic usage that native speakers use in their everyday lives. However, space does not allow the inclusion of these forms here as the majority will be of limited use to most students of English.

Standardised spelling has been used throughout and has been cross-referenced with the following:

Collins English Dictionary (1995), Glasgow: HarperCollins.

Cambridge Dictionary of American English (2000), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Word frequency and threshold levels have been cross-referenced with the following:

Geoffrey Leech, Paul Rayson and Andrew Wilson (2001): Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English, London: Pearson Education.

Council of Europe (1999): Threshold Level 1990, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.

A site developed by Netring Media and Technology | Shop powered by Overseer