Academic vocabulary for the new TOEFL Reading

For the new TOEFL Reading, the vocabulary that matters most is the everyday language of university textbooks: words like evidence, significant, decline, assume and consequently, known well enough to spell, to change into the right form and to understand in context. Rare words matter far less than they did in the old 700-word passages.

This guide covers what each Reading task asks of your vocabulary, which words to learn and how to learn them so they are still there on test day.

How the 2026 Reading section tests vocabulary

Since 21 January 2026 the TOEFL iBT Reading section has three task types: Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage. ETS's 2026 test specifications put Complete the Words at around 30 of the roughly 50 Reading items, so it is the largest single block of the section. Texts run from about 15 words up to about 200. (Figures from the ETS TOEFL iBT test specifications, as of October 2026.)

Each task uses vocabulary differently.

So knowing a word for the TOEFL means three things: you know its meaning in an academic sentence, you know its family (noun, verb, adjective, adverb), and you can spell every member of that family. Most word lists only give you the first.

For how each task works, see our guides to Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage.

Which words to learn

Start with the general academic words

The Academic Word List, published by Averil Coxhead in 2000, groups about 570 word families that appear across university subjects regardless of field. Words like establish, factor, indicate, require and sufficient turn up in biology, history and economics texts alike. These are the words TOEFL passages lean on, because the test can't assume you know the specialist terms of any subject.

You probably know many of them already. The gap is usually not meaning but form and spelling: a student who knows analyse may still write analisis, or choose significant where the sentence needs significance.

Then the words that show how ideas connect

The ETS specifications describe Read an Academic Passage as testing main ideas, details, inferences, "idea relationships" and "rhetorical structures". In practice that means the small words that tell you what a sentence is doing:

• Contrast: however, whereas, although, by contrast, nevertheless
• Cause and result: therefore, consequently, as a result, thus, owing to
• Addition and example: moreover, in addition, for instance, such as
• Concession and limits: admittedly, to some extent, at least in part

If you misread nevertheless as "therefore", you will answer an inference question the wrong way round, even if you knew every content word.

Skip most specialist terms

You don't need to learn photosynthesis or sedimentary in advance. When a passage uses a technical term, it usually explains it or the meaning is clear from the sentence. Time spent on subject-specific lists is better spent on general academic words in more of their forms.

A worked example

Here is a short original passage in the style of Read an Academic Passage. Read it, then look at how vocabulary shapes the answers.

Many seeds do not germinate as soon as they reach the soil. Instead, they remain dormant, sometimes for decades, until conditions are favourable. This delay may appear wasteful, but it offers a significant advantage. If every seed in a population sprouted in the same season, a single drought could eliminate the next generation entirely. By spreading germination across several years, a plant reduces this risk. Consequently, dormancy is particularly common in species that grow in unpredictable environments, such as deserts, where rainfall varies considerably from one year to the next.

Question 1. The word favourable in the passage is closest in meaning to: (A) popular (B) suitable (C) familiar (D) generous

The answer is (B). Favourable can mean "approving" (a favourable review), which is close to popular. In this sentence it describes conditions for growth, so suitable is the only option that works. Always put the option back into the sentence and reread it.

Question 2. Why does the author mention deserts? (A) To show where dormancy was first studied (B) To give an example of an environment where dormancy is useful (C) To contrast deserts with forests (D) To explain why seeds die in drought

The answer is (B), and the signal is such as, which introduces an example. Consequently in the same sentence tells you this is a result of the earlier argument about risk.

Complete the Words version. The same text could appear with missing letters: a signif_____ advantage, consid______. You need significant (adjective before a noun) and considerably (adverb after the verb varies). Knowing the meaning is not enough; you need the form and the spelling.

Learn words as families

The fastest gain for most students is learning four forms where they used to learn one. A notebook page for one word should look something like this:

Add one example sentence and one common partner word for each: a significant increase, carry out an analysis, vary considerably, rely heavily on. Partners matter because they help you guess the missing half of a word quickly.

A note on spelling: ETS is an American organisation, and TOEFL texts generally use American spelling (analyze, favorable). The examples on this page use Australian spelling. Learn both forms of the common pairs (-ise/-ize, -our/-or, -yse/-yze) so neither surprises you in Complete the Words, where the number of blanks tells you how many letters are missing.

A daily routine that works

Twenty to thirty minutes a day is enough if it is regular.

1. Read one short academic text (10 minutes). University news pages, science magazines and The Conversation all publish 400 to 800-word articles written by academics for general readers.
2. Pick five words you half-know. Not words you've never seen; words you recognise but couldn't use or spell.
3. Write the family, a partner word and your own sentence for each (10 minutes).
4. Test yourself on spelling from memory the next day and again after a week. If you can't spell it, Complete the Words will catch you.
5. Once a week, do a timed Reading set and log every vocabulary-related error: wrong meaning, wrong form or wrong spelling.

Five words a day is about 150 words a month learned properly, which is more useful than 1,000 words skimmed from a list. Our 4-week TOEFL study plan shows how to fit this alongside the other sections.

Common mistakes

• Memorising lists without context. You recognise the word in isolation but miss it when it appears in a sentence with a different meaning.
• Learning only one form. Complete the Words often needs the adverb or plural you never practised.
• Choosing the most familiar meaning. Words like account, figure, yield and sound have several meanings, and the passage usually uses the less common one.
• Ignoring linking words. They decide inference and purpose questions.
• Chasing rare words. Words like ubiquitous make good flashcards but rarely decide a TOEFL answer.
• Weak spelling of common words. Environment, government, occurred, necessary and beginning are misspelled far more often than difficult words.

Quick practice

Complete each word, then check your answers below.

1. The results were not stat_________ significant. (adverb, 9 letters missing)
2. Researchers were unable to repl_____ the experiment. (verb, 5)
3. The population declined, but the cau__ was unclear. (noun, 2)
4. These findings are cons______ with earlier studies. (adjective, 6)
5. Rainfall varies consid______ across the region. (adverb, 6)

In the next sentence, choose the closest meaning of the word in bold:

6. The theory does not account for the sudden change. (A) pay for (B) explain (C) report (D) count

Answers: 1. statistically 2. replicate 3. cause 4. consistent 5. considerably 6. (B)

If you got the meaning right but a letter wrong, that is the most useful thing this exercise can tell you. For timed practice in the 2026 format, the free Reading section in the AIL TOEFL iBT® style practice tests starts with Complete the Words and marks each word, so you can see which ones you spelled wrongly.