Vocabulary words worth learning, grouped into lists you can study in one sitting — SAT and GRE words, words by Latin and Greek root, words by language of origin, and themed collections. Turn any list into flashcards or a quiz, free.
The ones you will actually meet. A word that appears once in a century of writing is a curiosity; a word that turns up in every broadsheet leader is a tool. These lists are built from frequency data, so the exam sets carry the words those exams genuinely favour and the themed sets carry words you meet in that subject rather than words that merely sound impressive.
If you are preparing for a test, start with the exam list and work down it. If you are building general vocabulary, the root lists are the better investment — learning that spect means "look" unlocks inspect, prospect, circumspect and forty more at once.
Reading a list top to bottom is the least effective thing you can do with it. Space the words out, meet each one several times across days rather than minutes, and always meet it inside a sentence. Every list here becomes flashcards in one tap, and every word links to its full entry with pronunciation, examples and word origins.
You can also drop any list straight into Vocabulary Flow and scroll it — the same vocabulary words, one at a time, with no session to commit to.
Around 500 well-chosen words covers most of what the test rewards. Learning 3,000 rarely pays — the exam tests whether you can read a passage, not whether you memorised a dictionary. Work one exam list properly rather than three badly.
They teach the parts words are built from, so one root unlocks dozens at once. Learning that "spect" means look gives you inspect, prospect, spectator and circumspect together, including words you have never seen before.
Yes — every list converts to a flashcard deck in one tap, and you can print or export it. You can also scroll any list in Vocabulary Flow if you would rather meet the words one at a time than sit down to a study session.
GRE words skew more academic and abstract; SAT words skew toward the vocabulary of argument and analysis you meet in reading passages. There is real overlap, so learning one set gives you a head start on the other.
Yes. The IELTS and TOEFL sets are built around academic and everyday English rather than rare words, which is what those tests actually measure. Pair them with the bilingual feeds if English is not your first language.
Prefer a feed to a list? Build your vocabulary by scrolling instead.
