Key Vocabulary Terms: A Comprehensive List
Essential Vocabulary: Definitions and Examples
Alarm: A sudden feeling of fear or worry.
Applicant: A person who makes a formal request for something.
Application: A formal written request, especially for a job or a place in a school or club.
Aptitude: A natural ability or skill.
Concern: A feeling of worry.
Countryside: The land away from towns and cities, where there are fields and woods.
Eavesdropper: Someone who secretly listens to what other people are saying.
E-book: An electronic book or novel.
Enquiry: A question that you ask about something.
Fear: A feeling of being afraid of someone or something.
Firewall: A computer program designed to protect the information stored on a computer.
Host: A person who invites guests to their house and provides them with food and drink.
Inquest: An official process that tries to find out how someone died.
Issue: A problem or subject for discussion.
Job Satisfaction: The feeling of pleasure that you get from doing your job well or achieving what you want.
Light: The energy or brightness that comes from the sun or a lamp.
Lighting: The quality or type of lights used in a room or building.
Maternity Leave: The period of time when a woman is away from her work in order to have a baby.
Measure: An action that is done for a special reason.
Might: Great strength or power.
Milky Way: The system of stars that contains our sun and its planets, seen as a bright band in the night sky.
Model: A copy of something, usually smaller than the original.
Nature: All the plants, animals, etc., in the universe and all the things that happen in it that are not made or caused by people.
Percentage: The number, amount, or rate of something, expressed as if it is part of a total which is a hundred, or a part or share of a whole.
Personal Statement: A letter containing extra information about yourself that you send with a job application.
Pole: Either of the two points at the exact top and bottom of the Earth.
Proportion: A part or share of a whole.
Record: A written account of what has happened or been done.
Reference: A statement or letter describing a person’s character or ability that is given to a possible future employer.
Space: A place or an area that is not used, or the area which surrounds the planet Earth and other planets and stars.
Term: A word or group of words with a particular meaning, or a period of time into which a school or university year is divided.
Unknown: A place or thing that you know nothing about.
Action Verbs
Advertise: To put information in a newspaper, on television, or on a picture on the wall, etc., in order to persuade people to buy something or to interest them in a new job, etc.
Affect: To make someone or something change in a particular way; to influence someone or something.
Apply: To make a formal request, usually in writing, for something such as a job or a place at college or university.
Blame: To think or say that someone or something is responsible for something bad.
Cause: To make something happen.
Destroy: To damage something so badly that it can no longer be used or no longer exists.
Earn: To get money by working.
Enclose: To put something in the same envelope or package as something else.
Execute: To perform a task.
Expose: To show something that is usually hidden or to tell something that has been kept secret.
Gain: To gradually get more of something.
Incorporate: To make something a part of something else or to have something as a part.
Isolate: To put or keep someone or something separate from other people or things.
Motivate: To cause someone to act in a particular way.