Essential Words For TOEFL

chiefly

adv. the most important or most common
adj. chief
syn. mostly

  • Houses are made chiefly of wood products.
  • Corn is the chief crop of the Midwest.

coarse

adj. not fine or smooth; not delicate
adv. coarsely
syn. rough
n. coarseness

  • Sandpaper is an extremely coarse material.
  • Wool clothing has a certain coarseness in texture.

commonplace

adj. ordinary
syn. frequent

  • In some parts of the world, text messaging is more commonplace than voice calling.
  • Female lawyers are commonplace in the United States.

complex

adj. difficult to understand or explain; having many parts
n. complexity
syn. complicated

  • The businessmen astutely approached the complex production problem.
  • The universe has a complexity beyond comprehension.

conventional

adj. following accepted rules or standards
adv. conventionally
syn. traditional
n. convention

  • Professor Canfield agreed with the conventional theory about the origin of the Basque language.
  • To become integrated into a society, you must learn the conventions of that society.

curious

adj. odd or strange; eager to learn
adv. curiously
syn. peculiar
n. curiosity

  • A curious object was discovered in the remains.
  • Sally was curiously interested in the history of Alaska.

emit

v. to send out; give off
n. emission
syn. release
n. emitter

  • The raging forest fire emitted a dense, white smoke.
  • Modern telescopes can detect the faintest light emitted by distant stars.

exceedingly

adv. very; to an unusual degree
v. exceed
syn. extremely
n. excess
adj. excessive
adv. excessively

  • In tropical zones, it is exceedingly hot and humid.
  • It is not safe to exceed the speed limit.

exclusively

adv. no one else; nothing else; not shared with others
adj. exclusive
syn. restrictively
n. exclusion
v. exclude

  • This room is used exclusively by the faculty.
  • They excluded everyone under 21 from the contest.

extinguish

v. to bring about the end of something
adj. extinguishable
syn. terminate
n. extinguishment

  • The firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.
  • Modern medicine has extinguished many previously serious illnesses.

immense

adj. extremely large
adv. immensely
syn. massive
n. immensity

  • From the mountaintop you can see the immense valley.
  • She was immensely interested in the idea of teaching a foreign language.

instantaneous

adj. occurring in an instant
adv. instantly
syn. immediate
n. instant

  • A lightbulb turns on nearly instantaneously when you flip the switch.
  • The teacher was instantly met with complaints when he announced the test.

rigid

adj. not easy to bend; firm; inflexible
adv. rigidly
syn. stiff

  • The teacher was very rigid in his ideas about class attendance.
  • He adhered rigidly to his opinions about economic growth.

routinely

adv. regularly; usually done
adj. routine
syn. ordinarily
n. routine

  • She routinely gets a physical examination.
  • It is routine for students to become homesick at times.

stamina

n. lasting physical or mental strength
syn. endurance

  • The Olympic runner demonstrated incredible stamina.
  • The horse lacked the stamina to win the race.

sufficiently

adv. enough; in a satisfying manner
n. sufficiency
syn. adequately
adj. sufficient
v. suffice

  • Jenny is sufficiently mature to make her own decisions.
  • Her income is sufficient for her needs.

visibly

adv. can be seen
adj. visible *power of imagination or wisdom, especially with

regard to the future

n. vision*
syn. noticeably
v. view
adj. visionary*

  • Ken was visibly upset about his performance evaluation.
  • Stars are more visible on a clear fall evening.