IELTS® Vocabulary Flashcard

Definition: A plant of the buttercup family which typically has brightly coloured flowers and deeply divided leaves

Example sentences:

Definition: (Of a plant or animal) growing or living in or near water:

Example sentences:

• Aquatic algae can detect orange, green and blue light because they have receptors to detect light on the red and far red of the spectrum, which are the common wavelengths in the air.
• Aquatic ecosystems are divided into two major groups: marine, or saltwater, and freshwater, also known as nonsaline.
• If human consumption outpaces natural restoration, the quality and quantity of remaining aquatic habitat suffer
• Aquatic mammals are well adapted to life in the water with physical characteristics such as flippers, webbed feet, paddlelike tails and streamlined bodies.

Defintion: light created by the body of a living creature, for example by some sea creatures and insects such as fireflies.

Bioluminescent is the adjective of the word "bioluminecence". Bioluminescence is light created by the body of a living creature, for example by some sea creatures and insects such as fireflies. Bioluminescent animals are able to emit their own light. The ability to emit their own light is called bioluminecence.

Definition: A marine mammal of the order Cetacea; a whale, dolphin, or porpoise

Example sentences:

• Killer whales also prey on mammals such as other cetaceans and pinnipeds, as well as on birds and large fish.

Definition: A hard stony substance secreted by certain marine coelenterates as an external skeleton, typically forming large reefs in warm seas

Example sentences:

• The rest of the island is characterized by beautiful sandy beaches, coral reefs, warm clear blue waters and idyllic islands.

Definition: A ridge of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of coral:

Example sentences:

• Offshore drilling would damage coral reefs and mangrove swamps and threaten endangered sea life.

Fungi is the plural form of fungus. Fungus is any of various types of organisms that get their food from decaying material or other living things, like mushrooms.

Definition: Any of a group of unicellular, multicellular, or syncytial spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter, including moulds, yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools

Example sentences:

• A fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms.

Definition: A microorganism, especially a bacterium causing disease or fermentation

Example sentences:

• A virus is a parasite, which needs a host cell to live in, and a microbe is a bacterium, which is a living cell in its own right.

Definition: So small as to be visible only with a microscope

Example sentences:

• They feed on microscopic blue green algae plants that only thrive in saline waters.
• To their scientists, the visible snow is only a small part of all the settling material that is mostly microscopic and not visible to the naked eye.

Definition: A cephalopod mollusc with eight sucker-bearing arms, a soft sac-like body, strong beak-like jaws, and no internal shell.

Example sentences:

• The harbor seal's diet consists of fish, cephalopods, such as octopus and squid, and crustaceans.

Definition: Plankton consisting of microscopic plants.

Example sentences:

• The Arctic has a runaway lead when it comes to global warming. The rapidly thawing region is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world. And it’s just getting started. A new study says the warming gap could widen substantially—all thanks to microscopic phytoplankton. As sea ice melts and more light penetrates the ocean surface, phytoplankton flourish. As these zillions of photosynthesizing microorganisms live it up, they have a collectively large impact on ecosystems.

Definition: A solitary or colonial sedentary form of a coelenterate such as a sea anemone, typically having a columnar body with the mouth uppermost surrounded by a ring of tentacles. Polyp can also mean a small mass of tissue that grows in the body.

Example sentences:

• Most hydrozoans alternate between a polyp and a medusa stage - they spend part of their lives as ‘jellyfish’ which are hard to distinguish from scyphozoan jellyfish.
• A coral structure is actually composed of hundreds or thousands of tiny animals like sea anemones growing together as a colony. These tiny coral polyps are the builders of the coral reef. Their tiny calcium shells have accumulated over thousands of years to form the largest living structures in the world. 

Reverberate is an intransitive verb. The subject used with this verb is often a sound or a light. So when a sound reverberates, it means the sound bounces off a surface such as a wall. Here are example sentences

• The sound reverberates better in cavernous places, like gyms, or churches
• His singing reverberated through the house.

Reverberate can also mean to become filled with voice. In this case, the verb is used with a place. For example:

• The room reverberated with laughter.

Sea anemones are a soft, brightly coloured sea creature that looks like a flower and often lives on rocks under the water. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flowering plant.

Example sentences:

• Sea anemones are  predatory marine animals.
• Sea anemones are characterized by a symmetrical body, usually with stinging tentacles, and a central mouth. 
• A coral structure is actually composed of hundreds or thousands of tiny animals like sea anemones growing together as a colony. These tiny coral polyps are the builders of the coral reef. Their tiny calcium shells have accumulated over thousands of years to form the largest living structures in the world. 

Definition: Plankton consisting of small animals and the immature stages of larger animals

Example sentences:

• Oil and gas was formed around 100 million years ago when tiny marine plants and animals called phytoplankton and zooplankton floated on the sea's surface. They typically eat insects and floating vegetable matter but their diet also includes zooplankton, aquatic insect larvae, and worms.