Word of the Week
With its 120th word, Word of the Week has now come to an end. We hope you enjoyed this free feature and that it has given you an insight into the thinking and research behind the English Vocabulary Profile.
All 120 are still available to read in our archive, below. Each Word of the Week in the archive is followed by a link to the full entry for that word on the English Vocabulary Profile. To view the entries, you will need to subscribe to the EVP: to subscribe for free click here.
Word of the week: reasonable
There are five senses given in the EVP for the adjective reasonable up to B2 level. Three of these are at B1: CHEAP, BIG ENOUGH and GOOD ENOUGH. There is a lot of evidence in the Cambridge Learner Corpus for the first two senses, and as the third is closely related to the second in meaning, it has also been assigned B1, with a learner example at the next CEFR level as there were no citations found at B1. As the Word family panel shows, a number of related words are known by B2 level, including the opposite adjective unreasonable. The first member of this Word family that learners meet is the frequent noun reason in its core sense of WHY, as in the reason why.To view the full entry for reasonable on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: sign
The noun sign is first met at A2 in the sense of a public symbol or messsage, as in a road sign. At B1 level, learners appear to know two further meanings of the noun, SHOWING and BODY MOVEMENT, as well as the verb and the related phrasal verb sign up. Recent validation work on the English Vocabulary Profile, drawing on research into phrasal expressions (Martínez, 2010), has indicated that the phrase no sign of sb/sth is distinct from the sense of SHOWING, and at the higher level of B2. The EVP has undergone a full year of trialling and validation by experts around the world, in order to put our initial findings to the test.To view the full entry for sign on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: in
The word in is one of the longest entries in the EVP, because in addition to its straightforward preposition and adverb uses, a large number of phrases have been included. In is known as a preposition of time and place at A1 level, as in in 2010, in April, in Spain,and in the park. Learners at B1 are familiar with a variety of prepositional phrases such as in advance, in general, in love and in particular and there is evidence of many more phrases being known by B2 level, including some associated with formal writing, for example in conclusion, in due course, in relation to, in response to. Prepositional phrases like these are listed in more than one place in the EVP for ease of access. So, for example, you will find the phrase in particular listed both at in and particular.To view the full entry for in on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
