16 VOCABULARY FOR TOEFL iBT
HERE’S A HINT
ALL SYNONYMS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
Synonyms are words that share the same meaning or nearly the same meaning
as other words. It is important to know that there are often many synonyms for
one word. While some synonyms can be similar, they are rarely identical. For
instance, the words bountiful, ample, plentiful,and glutsuggest abundance. How-
ever, one of these words suggests an overabundance. While you can have a boun-
tiful, ample, or plentiful supply of food on the table for a dinner party, a glut of
food is an excessive amount of food that suggests there will be waste involved.
It is important to choose your words carefully and to be as clear as possible when
choosing synonyms.
Although some synonyms are interchangeable, most words have their own
unique connotation. So while test questions will often ask you to identify synonyms
such as laconic, terse,and succinct,when it comes to your own communications,
you should choose your words carefully. Terse,for example, has the most positive
connotation of these three words, suggesting brevity with a sense of polish or ele-
gance. Succinct is more neutral, conveying a sense of compactness or tightness in
how an idea has been expressed. Laconic,on the other hand, conveys the same
basic idea but with the suggestion of brusqueness or abruptness. Thus, although
these words are effectively synonymous, each word carries its own specific con-
notation and leaves a slightly different impression.HOW MUCH CONTEXT DO YOU NEED?In the passage about Sarah, you would still be able to understand the main idea of
the passage even if you did not know—or could not figure out—the meanings of
indolence and assiduous. In some cases, though, your understanding of a sentence or
paragraph depends on your understanding of a particular word or phrase. For
example, you can’t understand what inept means from the following example
sentence—it simply does not provide sufficient context. In fact, you can’t even fig-
ure out if it is something positive or negative, because the sentence provides almost
no context at all:➥ Sabina is an utterly inept dancer.
Is Sabina a graceful dancer? An awkward dancer? Or an accomplished dancer? You
simply cannot tell from the context. But you could figure out what inept means by