🔥 Master 40 Band 9 IELTS Vocabulary Words to Boost Your Score

If you're aiming for a Band 8 or 9 in IELTS, using the right vocabulary is essential. Below are 40 high-impact academic words that are frequently used in IELTS Writing and Speaking. These words are not only relevant but also coherent, precise, and substantial. For example, instead of saying "there are a lot of problems," say "there are numerous challenges of considerable magnitude." Want to talk about new ideas? Use innovate or feasible rather than simple terms like "try" or "maybe." These words help you sound profound, empowered, and articulate. Remember, vocabulary must be pertinent to the topic—don’t use big words just to sound smart, or it might undermine your clarity. You’ll also learn when to use each word and when not to use them. For instance, only use empirical when referring to data or evidence, and avoid ambiguous language in your answers. Practice these viable strategies consistently to see a cumulative improvement in your IELTS performance.

Word	Meaning	Use when…	Don’t use when…
1. Abundant	plentiful	there’s plenty of something	very limited supply
2. Adequate	sufficient	something is just enough	it's either too much or too little
3. Alleviate	ease, make less severe	reducing pain/stress	causing pain/stress
4. Ambiguous	unclear	statement has two+ interpretations	meaning is crystal clear
5. Arbitrary	random, without reason	decision lacks logic	based on clear logic
6. Apparent	obvious, clearly visible	evidence is clear	evidence is hidden or vague
7. Coherent	logically consistent	ideas flow smoothly	ideas are disorganized
8. Conducive	helpful, makes outcomes likely	environment helps productivity	environment is obstructive
9. Constitute	make up, form	parts forming a whole	unrelated, random items
10. Cumulative	increases over time	effects that build up	one-time effects
11. Diverse	varied	variety in a group or samples	everything is the same
12. Elaborate	detailed	responding with depth	giving a brief summary
13. Empirical	based on observation/data	supporting with real data	theoretical or imagined only
14. Inhibit	hinder, hold back	obstacle slowing progress	something enabling progress
15. Innovate	introduce something new	talking about new ideas	copying old methods
16. Magnitude	great size or importance	discussing scale of problems	small or insignificant matters
17. Mitigate	make less severe	reducing negative effects	increasing problems
18. Obsolete	outdated	things no longer used	in widespread use
19. Optimize	make best use of something	improving efficiency	careless or wasteful use
20. Plausible	believable	a reasonable explanation	far-fetched or unbelievable
21. Proponent	supporter	someone backing an idea	someone opposed to the idea
22. Prevalent	widespread	describing common trends	rare or unique instances
23. Subsequent	following, coming after	events in sequence	simultaneous events
24. Sustainable	lasting for the long term	eco‑friendly or enduring plans	short‑lived or wasteful actions
25. Empower	give power/control to someone	boosting people’s skills	disempowering or excluding them
26. Exacerbate	make worse	worsening a problem	improving a situation
27. Feasible	possible to do	trying a realistic solution	unmanageable or impossible ideas
28. Inevitable	certain to happen	unavoidable outcomes	avoidable or preventable things
29. Insufficient	not enough	lack of resources/data	fully adequate amounts
30. Notion	idea or concept	when presenting abstract ideas	when explaining factual data
31. Pertinent	relevant	relating directly to the topic	irrelevant or tangential points
32. Profound	deep meaning or effect	showing impact at great depth	shallow or trivial subjects
33. Scarce	rare	limited resources	abundance of supply
34. Substantial	large, significant	sizeable amounts or effects	trivial or negligible amounts
35. Tentative	not fully worked out	preliminary plans	final, confident statements
36. Viable	workable, feasible	plans that can realistically work	unrealistic, flawed ideas
37. Virtually	almost completely	98–99% true	when few examples exist
38. Consequence	result, outcome	describing outcomes/events	root causes
39. Aspect	a particular part	discussing components	talking generally without detail
40. Undermine	weaken or damage	eroding support or structure	strengthening or building up

🔥 Master 40 Band 9 IELTS Vocabulary Words to Boost Your Score

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