What Academic Words Should Students Know?

Averil Coxhead (Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand) analyzed 3.5 million words from written sources and identified 570 word families most frequently used in English-language academic texts. She called this list the Academic Word List (AWL).

Words were selected for the Academic Word List because they occur frequently in a wide range of academic subject, including the arts, law, science, and economics. This means the AWL is usefulfor learners regardless of their field of study.

The Academic Word List website from Massey University has the complete list, organized into ten categories (or “sublists”), plus other information on the AWL.