IELTS® Vocabulary Flashcard

Your ancestors are the people from whom you are descended. Example sentences:

• Radiocarbon dating, the analysis of ancient DNA in bones and teeth are used to help build up a picture of our ancestors. It determines the age of ancient objects by means of measuring the amount of carbon-14 there is left in an object. This is now the most widely used method of age estimation in the field.
• Mesolithic Britain was thought to have been inhabited by hunter-gatherers, however, the recent excavation of a dwelling in Northumbria reveals our Stone Age ancestors to have been indigenous and elaborate house builders.

The adjective "ancient" describe something having lived or existed for a very long time or coming from, or belonging to a time that was long ago in the past.

Collocations

• ancient civilizations
• ancient times
• ancient cultures
• ancient peoples

Example sentences:

• Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians.
• The practice was more common in ancient times than it is now.
• The people in the village still observe the ancient customs/traditions of their ancestors.
• Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources through irrigation and other techniques formed the basis of society.
• Sometime around 4000 B.C., ancient Sumerian culture emerged on a floodplain along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now southern Iraq.
• The ancient Etruscan civilization emerged roughly 2,900 years ago in present-day Italy. ​

A civilization is a society that has advanced features. For example, the people aren’t barbaric. They have a set of rules, or laws that they follow, as well as political and religious organizations. Civilization can also be a particular society at a certain time and place.

• The archaeologists were impressed with the ancient civilization of the Mayans.

Definition: (Of a plant or animal) of indigenous origin or growth:

Example sentences:

• The species is native to South Africa, but is now widespread in south-western Australia, being especially abundant on roadsides and wasteland. 
• Spanish colonies were run under the system called encomienda, by which the Spanish crown granted colonists the right to demand tribute in gold of labor from native inhabitants.
• She's a native Californian.

To settle is to go and live somewhere, especially permanently.

• By 1650, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution.
• The first human inhabitants of Meso-America were descendants of Asian peoples who crossed the Bering land bridge. These first settlers were hunters and gatherers, but eventually they developed settled communities based on cultivation of crops such as maize.

Definition: Of, belonging to, or inherited from an ancestor or ancestors:

Example sentences:

• Although freshwater is the ancestral habitat for larval mosquitoes, multiple species independently evolved the ability to survive in saltwater.
• The unique estuarine has been the ancestral home for nearly 150 species of birds, many of which are migratory.

Definition: Resembling a human being in form;Relating to the group of higher primates, which includes monkeys, apes, and humans

Example sentences:

• Archaeologists and site-workers anxiously probed into the sand and uncover three magnificently carved unidentified wooden anthropoid sarcophagi dating back to the 26th Dynasty.
• Fundamental questions remain to be answered about anthropoid origins in Asia and Africa.

A descendant is someone who has come down from someone else, for example, an ancestor. You are a descendant of your grandparents. As an adjective, descendant means going down. Notice the root word, descend which means to go down. This is helpful to remember the meaning of the word. Let's look at example sentences:

• The first human inhabitants of Meso-America were descendants of Asian peoples who crossed the Bering land bridge.​
• The Native American Trade is the trade between Europeans, their North American descendants, and the indigenous people of North America known as Native Americans in the United States,

If a species or a person dwells somewhere, it means it or he lives there. For example:

• An example of mutual symbiosis is the relationship between sea anemones and the clownfish that dwell among the tentacles of sea anemones
• Many nomads dwell in forests.

If you dwell on something, especially something unpleasant, you think, speak, or write about it a lot or for quite a long time. For example:

• I'd rather not dwell on the past.​

A dweller is a person or animal that lives in a particular place. Here are example sentences:

• The fact that elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains would make it seem that they are mountain dweller.
• Many species on islands are very rare and endangered. Extinction is on the increase. As an example, 90 percent of bird species that are now extinct were island dwellers.

Indigenous is a word that can describe a plant, animal or person that is native to an area. Indigenous, aboriginal and native are all synonyms. The phrase "be indigenous to" is often used. For example:

• This delicious berry is indigenous to South Africa.  

• Rather than wandering aimlessly, indigenous peoples of North America tended to follow annual migratory patterns, often driven by the seasonal availability of their primary food sources. 

• Are there any species of frog indigenous to the area? 

• So who are the indigenous people of this land? 

To inhabit is to live in a place to have a home in a place. Here are example sentences:

• Several hundred species of birds inhabit the island.
• This part of the country is inhabited by native tribes.
• The island is no longer inhabited. [=no people live there]

An inhabitable place is a place that is suitable to live in. An example in a sentence:

•  As our Sun gets older, it will get larger and warmer, eventually leading to the Earth becoming inhabitable.

An uninhabitable place is a place that is not suitable to live in. An example in a sentence:

• If there's no roof then the house is uninhabitable.                                                             

An inhabitant is a person who inhabits (or lives) in a particular place..

Here is an example sentence:

• The Adena peoples are the first known inhabitants in the modern-day United States territory.

A migrant is a person who moves from one place to another, especially in order to find work. An example in a sentence:​

• Since the mid-1990’s, hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants from Mexico and beyond have been entering the United States on foot through Arizona.

Migrants can also be birds, fish, or animals that migrate from one part of the world to another. An example in a sentence:

• Birds that were altitudinal migrants or local nomads were classified as resident

Migratory means relating to the migration of people, birds, fish, or animals. Therefore, a migratory bird, fish, or animal is one that migrates every year.  Here are example sentences:

• The tribe was migratory and migrated in a similar way the birds moved to warmer places for the winter.
• Populations of many migratory birds depend not only on places to breed and spend the winter but also on the quality and continued availability of habitats along migration routes.
• Some species of ovenbirds are migratory, others are sedentary.

Definition: A period of a thousand years. The word "milennia" is the plural form of "millennium".

Example sentences:

• Silver first came into use on a substantial scale during the 3rd millennium bc
• The book describes the changes that have occurred in the landscape over many millennia.

Definition: A period of a thousand years

Example sentences:

• Silver first came into use on a substantial scale during the 3rd millennium bc

A nomad is a member of a group of people who travel from place to place rather than living in one place all the time. Here are example sentences:

• At first, the Anasazi were hunter-gatherers and nomads. During the agricultural era, the Anasazi became sedentary tribes, employing a wide variety of means to grow high-yield crops in areas of low rainfall.
• Today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle and they live in tents or other portable shelters.

A synonym for nomadic is migratory. Nomadic means anything moving around a lot. Certain times of birds are nomadic, because they move around several times a year depending on the weather. Nomadic people are ones that don’t stay in one place for too long. Used as an example,

• The tribe was nomadic and migrated in a similar way the birds to warmer places for the winter.

Definition: Relating to or denoting the period before written records

Example sentences:

• The late prehistoric archaeological record at La Crosse is dominated by a series of Oneota village sites.

Primitive describe something belonging to a society in which people live in a very simple way, usually without industries or a writing system.  Here are example sentences:

• The child’s table manners were horrendous like he was a primitive boy.

• Right up until the mid-1950s there were still regions in Greenland where the Inuits lived in rather primitive, but highly adequate, dwellings.

• The simplest form of engraving is hand engraving, which has been in use almost since civilization began. Stone-age humans using this primitive form of engraving to make marks and drawings on cave walls, but the human hand is only strong enough to engrave some materials. 

Primitive also describe animals or plants belonging to a very early period in the development of an animal or plant. For example

• Gars are a primitive fish that inhabit placid waters of the Western Hemisphere.

Sedentary means staying still, or not moving. This can be used on a smaller scale, for example, the office worker had poor health because she was sedentary. It can also be used to talk about a larger group of people, for example:

• The tribe was sedentary and remained in the northeast for their entire existence.
• Archaeologists discover clues to early formation of Maya sedentary life. The transition from groups of mobile foragers to established sedentary communities in ancient Maya society may have involved groups of varying degrees of mobility gathering for public ceremonies and joint construction projects.
• The office worker had poor health because she was sedentary.

A settlement is a group of people choosing to live somewhere together. A settlement is smaller than a town and may be a group of families from the same country who keep ties with their homeland. 

• The settlement in America was a home away from home for many of the Irish immigrants.
• A large Roman settlement has been discovered just outside the French town.
• Many Native Americans were killed during the settlement of the American West by Europeans in the 19th century. 

Settlers are people who go to live in a new country. An example in a sentence:

• Native Americans were still nomadic when the first European settlers arrived in America.

To subsist on something means to use (something) as a way to stay alive. Here are example sentences:

• The villagers subsist almost entirely on rice and fish.
• Hunters and gatherers subsisted on foraging and hunting.

The word tribe can have several meanings, but either way, it is referring to a group of people. These people can be related by blood or marriage. Or, it can be a social division. Normally, a tribe is referring to preliterate people or people who were not able to read or write. Here are example sentences:

• The land is occupied by a friendly tribe.
• Many tribes were able to establish peaceful trade relations with the new colonists during the early stages of the European settlement.

An inhabitable place is a place that is suitable to live in. An example in a sentence:

•  As our Sun gets older, it will get larger and warmer, eventually leading to the Earth becoming inhabitable.

An uninhabitable place is a place that is not suitable to live in. An example in a sentence:

• If there's no roof then the house is uninhabitable.