Academic Word of the Day Set 13

Previous Academic Word of the Day Sets

This page contains words from Set 13

This page examines particular academic words and their usage in academic writing.

For each word, it examines the meaning or meanings of that word and its collocations, connotations, other words in the same word families, possible synonyms, antonyms, and lexical phrases, and provides examples of its use in authentic texts which are cited and listed in the bibliography. Occasionally, where an example is taken from a text which is particularly rich in examples of the headword, the citation is also a link to the source article. There is also an indication of whether the word appears in an academic word list. These are:

AWL: The Academic Word List
NAWL: The New Academic Word List
AKL: The Academic Keyword List
OPAL: The Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon
NGSL: The New General Service List (a basic word list rather than an academic one)

In the example sentences the words of the day are highlighted in red. Other 'academic words' are highlighted in bold.
Where the example sentences contain 'academic' words, these are highlighted in bold, as in this paragraph. Only words from the Academic Word List (AWL), the New Academic Word List (NAWL) or some from the Academic Keyword List (AKL) are highlighted. This gives you an idea of how common and important these words are in these types of academic or technical texts.

If you need to find or highlight academic words in a text you can use the Academic Word Highlighter. This gives you a choice about which word list to use for highlighting.

The words of the day appear in order by date.

analytical AWL OPAL: ADJECTIVE systematic, careful examination of the qualities of something
Look at any carefully-prepared institutional list of hoped-for graduate attributes. “Critical thinking” — or its synonyms “analytical thinking”, “critical inquiry” etc — will be there. (Davies 2016)
A languages curriculum oriented around linguistics – the critical and analytical study of language itself – could meaningfully address the decline in language learning. (Havinga, Kasstan, and Sheehan 2025)
The primary types of analytical research techniques include case studies, surveys, content analysis, and experimental research. (Williams 2024)
Intuitive thinking is a thinking style reliant on immediate and unconscious judgments. It often follows gut feelings, whereas analytical thinking is about slower, more deliberate and detailed processing of information. (Cookson 2024)
If younger consultants still in training offload too much of their thinking and analytical work to generative AI, they may fail to develop their own analytical abilities. (Rinta-Kahila 2024)
The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Report notes how the most important skills for workers over the next five years will be analytical thinking and creative thinking and then technological literacy. (Coleborne and McGuire 2023)
Common collocates for this word:

analytical

techniques
approach
chemistry
methods
framework
skills
tools
work
chemist
purposes
results
reading
mind
thought
thinking

Word Family: analytical (adjective), analysis (noun), analyse (verb), analytically (adverb)
Synonyms: systematic, logical, diagnostic, rational
15/08/2025 - Set 13
assess AWL AKL OPAL NGSL: VERB TRANSITIVE to examine and place a value on something according to some predetermined criteria
There is a major flaw in the way we currently assess school students. (Masters 2017)
Exams should not be used to assess the recall of meaningless facts: this is a misuse of the format. (Bergen and Lane 2016)
Has any university pre-tested for critical thinking skills at admission, and post-tested upon completion of degree to assess gains?(Davies 2016)
Teachers in our study described the need to assess a diversity of academic and learning skills in multiple spaces for so many children as an impossible juggling act. (Pyle and DeLuca 2019)
A well-designed exam will assess the application of knowledge to real-world scenarios, the synthesis of knowledge across sub-topics, the ability to think critically, or to solve well-defined problems within a discipline. (Bergen and Lane 2016)
Common collocates for this word:

assess

progress
children
performance
people
damages
risks
pupils
changes
candidates
differences
individuals
training
health
attitudes
processes

Word Family: assess (verb), assessment (noun)
Synonyms: judge, examine, appraise, evaluate
Lexical phrases: assess the [performance, impact, extent, value, effect, potential, effectiveness, ...]

14/08/2025 - Set 13
constitute AWL AKL OPAL NGSL: VERB TRANSITIVE 1. make up, form; 2. be considered to be
There are a wide range of activities that constitute academic misconduct. (Hurley 2019)
As historian Timothy Snyder writes, eye contact and small talk are “not just polite” but constitute “part of being a responsible member of society.”(Tropp 2025)
Advances in digital technologies, nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology and new materials constitute a so-called fourth industrial revolution. (Foster 2025)
By blocking humanitarian assistance, the state commits one of the most serious violations of international law: the right to life. This would constitute an international crime and those involved can be tried in local or international courts. (Bope 2021)
What about getting someone else to read a draft of your essay? What if they do more than proofread and they alter sections of an assignment? Does that constitute academic misconduct?(Hurley 2019)
By blocking humanitarian assistance, the state commits one of the most serious violations of international law: the right to life. This would constitute an international crime and those involved can be tried in local or international courts. (Bope 2021)
Common collocates for this word:

constitute

part
evidence
endorsement
grounds
theft
acceptance
investment
advice
proof
infringement
violations
robbery
discrimination
consent
approval

Word Family: constitute (verb), constituent (noun or adjective)
Synonyms: form, make up
13/08/2025 - Set 13
define AWL AKL OPAL NGSL: VERB TRANSITIVE 1. to state the meaning of something; 2. to state the extent and limits of something
In our recent study, we wanted to find out if people living in the UK recognise food variety – and how they define it. (Pink et al. 2020)
It is hard to define things like critical thinking: the concept is far too abstract. (Davies 2016)
Even among academics, populism has been difficult to define. This is partly because it has manifested in different ways during different times. (Moffitt and Bryant 2019)
Although creativity is difficult to define, it can be thought of as similar to problem solving, where information is used to reach a goal, in a new or unexpected way. (Cookson 2024)
Based on an initial study of pharmacology textbooks, we found three broad ways to define drugs: in terms of what they are, how they work and what they’re used for. (Baron 2023)
Common collocates for this word:

define

themselves
situations
quality
class
standards
groups
areas
racism
aggression
law
problem
priorities
roles
objectives
requirements

Word Family: define (verb), definition (noun), definite (adjective), definitive (adjective)
Synonyms: explain, delimit
12/08/2025 - Set 13
environment AWL AKL OPAL NGSL: NOUN COUNTABLE 1. the surroundings or circumstances in which something exists; 2. the physical surroundings in which plants and animals live
Data shows that as citizens, women tend to care for nature and the environment more than men and they tend to be more responsible for actions which may impact the climate change. (Profeta 2024)
According to this European Social Survey data, the share of women who agreed that it’s important to care for nature and the environment is higher than the share of men in all European countries. (Profeta 2024)
Gender roles and different opportunities may also play a role in gender differences in attitudes towards the environment. (Profeta 2024)
For the fourth year running, the condition of Australia’s environment has been relatively good overall. Our national environment scorecard released today gives 2024 a mark of 7.7 out of 10. (Dijk, Rapley, and Lawrie 2025)
Finally, leaders from all sectors need to be convinced of both the seriousness of the declining state of the environment and that sustainable development is possible. (Howes 2017)
Common collocates for this word:

environment

natural
physical
safe
new
social
economic
local
urban
external
global
political
competitive
rural
marine
immediate

Word Family: environment (noun)
Synonyms: surroundings, habitat, conditions, setting, situation, medium
11/08/2025 - Set 13
establish AWL AKL OPAL NGSL: VERB TRANSITIVE to set up, start, initiate
The role of assessment is to establish how well students have learnt what teachers have taught. (Masters 2017)
Interdisciplinary researchers are working to establish basic common guidelines for research design and conduct. (Prendergast 2022)
Generally when a lecturer, teacher or another marker is assessing an assignment they need to establish the authenticity of the work. (Hurley 2019)
In order to establish cause-and-effect, we need to go beyond the statistics and look for separate evidence (of a scientific or historical nature) and logical reasoning. (Borwein (Jon) and Rose 2014)
An alternative is to recognise that the fundamental purpose of assessment is to establish and understand where individuals are in their long-term learning progress at the time of assessment. (Masters 2017)
Common collocates for this word:

establish

links
relations
priorities
criteria
procedures
rapport
credibility
peace
identity
contact
communication
guidelines
myself
quality
correlations

Word Family: establish (verb), establishment (noun)
Synonyms: start, set up, initiate, launch
08/08/2025 - Set 13
export AWL NGSL: NOUN COUNTABLE a product sold and sent to another country
Salmon is the UK’s top food export, and as such stands to benefit from the reduced customs checks and paperwork outlined in the deal. (O’Kane et al. 2025)
This month the federal government announced a plan to ban live sheep exports, set to come into effect from May 1 2028. (O’Kane et al. 2025)
In Ireland, where processing capacity is highly concentrated, the agriculture sector has fought vigorously to keep the live export trade. (O’Kane et al. 2025)
Over 20 years ago, then Indonesian president Megawati Soekarnoputri banned the export of sea sand from her archipelago nation. (Bioantika and Octaviano 2025)
Australia banned the commercial export of all live native animals in 1982. (Cassey and Chekunov 2024)
Common collocates for this word:

export

major
main
new
chief
strong
important
illegal
agricultural
leading
direct
traditional
manufactured
principle
potential
premium

Word Family: export (noun), export (verb)
07/08/2025 - Set 13
formula AWL OPAL NGSL: NOUN COUNTABLE (plural: formulae) 1. a generally accepted procedure or method; 2. letters, numbers and symbols used to represent chemicals or mathematical equations; 3. treated milk for infants often in powdered form and with additives.
We tested the formula by applying it to someone’s forearm and then placing a cup with 20 hungry, female Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes against it. (Sibanda, Kruger, and Focke 2018)
Some of the dissolved CO₂ reacts with the water to form carbonic acid, which has a chemical formula of H₂CO₃. (Crowder 2023)
You might remember learning about the quadratic formula to figure out the solutions to these equations and find where the plot crosses the x-axis, too. (Gibbons 2025)
Almost three quarters of babies in the UK receive some formula in the first six weeks after birth. (Grant, Brown, and Jones 2023)
Our results showed that our formula was better at repelling the mosquito throughout the three minutes and that the effect lasted for up to six hours on the skin. (Sibanda, Kruger, and Focke 2018)
Common collocates for this word:

formula

new
simple
winning
successful
following
general
genetic
magic
empirical
agreed
mathematical
molecular
standard
complex
old

Word Family: formula (noun), formulaic (adjective)
Synonyms: guideline, blueprint, plan, recipe, abbreviation,
Lexical phrases: formula for [success, failure, disaster]

06/08/2025 - Set 13
inconsistency AWL: NOUN COUNTABLE or UNCOUNTABLE an irregularity in effects, results, behaviours, measurements and so on, which makes drawing conclusions or making predictions difficult.
But these studies show inconsistent results. This is likely due to differences in the way people took olive leaf extract, how much they took and how long for. This type of inconsistency normally tells us we need some more research to clarify the health effects of olive leaves. (Mantzioris and Conversation n.d.)
While teacher autonomy is a bedrock tradition in education, my research shows it also results in inconsistency, inequity and even unreliability. (Link 2024)
Historically, there is a deep inconsistency in how we treat different types of animals that is not easily overturned, even in the face of compelling legal and ethical arguments. (Johnson 2015)
Astronomers can correct these errors – called systematics – with careful calibration or algorithms, but only if we understand the reason for the inconsistency between different measurements. (Peterson 2025)
Many of these students are on individual plans, which look different between systems, sectors and even schools. This inconsistency makes the results of students with disabilities almost impossible to measure and compare across Australian schools. (Anderson, Boyle, and Swayn 2015)
introducing distinct browser designs can lead to user confusion, misunderstanding and a false sense of security, especially when it is now widely known that such inconsistency can breed confusion, and from that, frustration and lack of use. (Carroll 2023)
Common collocates for this word:

inconsistency

logical
apparent
glaring
direct
similar
internal
strange
serious
gross
great
obvious
fundamental
curious
dynamic
alleged

Word Family: inconsistency (noun), inconsistent (adjective), inconsistently (adverb)
Synonyms: irregularity, anomaly
Lexical phrases: inconsistency [in, between]

05/08/2025 - Set 13
legislation AWL NGSL: NOUN UNCOUNTABLE law or laws enacted by a government
France has approved legislation that will require all car parks with more than 80 spaces to be covered over by solar panels. (Ryan 2022)
Leading the way in 2012, South Africa developed legislation that limits the levels of salt in processed foods. (Schutte and Charlton 2015)
Judicial review is the term given to the court’s power to review legislation that potentially conflicts with either federal law or the constitution, including any of the 27 amendments made since it was originally written. (Long 2022)
Although 96% of all these countries have some form of domestic anti-trafficking legislation in place, many of them appear to have failed to prohibit other types of human exploitation in their domestic law. (Allain and Schwarz 2020)
During the 19th century, states were not asked to pass legislation to criminalise the slave trade, rather they were asked to repeal – that is, to abolish – any laws allowing for the slave trade. (Allain and Schwarz 2020)
While legislation is only a first step towards effectively eradicating slavery, it is fundamental to harnessing the power of the state against slavery. (Allain and Schwarz 2020)
Common collocates for this word:

legislation

new
national
existing
delegated
proposed
current
social
recent
relevant
European
environmental
previous
primary
other
domestic

Word Family: legislation (noun), legislate (verb), legislative (adjective)
Synonyms: enactment 04/08/2025 - Set 13

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