New Academic Word List

New Academic Word List 101-125

By Will Salisbury·Updated 25 October 2026

These are words 101 to 125 of the top 400 words of the New Academic Word List: words that appear again and again in university texts and in the Academic IELTS Reading and Writing tasks. For each word, read the example, try to guess the meaning, then reveal it and mark honestly how you did. Then say the word aloud, record yourself and compare it with the model voice. When you have finished, try the gap quiz and save your results.

The words

Gap quiz

Each sentence has one gap. Drag a word into the gap, or tap a word and then tap the gap. The words are the ones you have just practised, and some of them have changed shape (for example, is or made).

1. The word water has two : wa and ter.
2. Each is a long thread in the cell that carries many genes along its length.
3. The virus can enter the body and the lungs, which makes breathing painful.
4. A compass needle points north because of the Earth's field.
5. The of the system, meaning how its parts are arranged and connected, was changed last week.
6. Maths students work with data, such as measurements and counts.
7. Two skills matter most, listening and speaking.
8. She is at level: better than a beginner but not yet advanced.
9. The of the virus happens through close contact between people.
10. Take one of the medicine every morning, before you eat.
11. Earthquakes are a rare in this region, and many people have never felt one.
12. Your grandmother is your mother's mother.
13. The Earth turns on its once every twenty-four hours.
14. A person thinks clearly and makes sensible decisions, even when upset.
15. The temple was the of religious life in the region for many centuries.
16. Only a small of wealthy families controlled the country and its land.
17. Five thousand is only an of the crowd size; the real number may be different.
18. She spent three years writing her doctoral on climate change.
19. Telling lies is considered a in many religions, and a person may feel guilty.
20. The of animals into mammals, birds and reptiles helps scientists to study them.
21. Water freezes when the temperature drops below the freezing of zero degrees.
22. A group of signs that often appear together and point to one illness is called a .
23. A study looks at two countries side by side to see how they differ.
24. Press this button to the alarm before you leave the house.
25. An is a young person between childhood and adulthood.

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Word list: New Academic Word List 1.2 by Charles Browne, Brent Culligan and Joseph Phillips (2013), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The list gives the words and their order; the meanings, examples and exercises on this page are our own.

← Words 76-100All groupsWords 126-150 →