TOEFL® Vocabulary ebook

Definition: Relating to the atmosphere of the earth:

Example senences:

• Oceans are playing a very vital role in maintaining the atmospheric balance of the earth.

Definition: Of, relating to, or near a coast

Example sentences:

• The process of coastal erosion and deposition further down the coast has been going on for centuries.

Continental is used to refer to something that belongs to or relates to a continent. Here are example sentences:

• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.
• Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere. Tectonic plates have two primary types: oceanic plates and continental plates. 

Definition: An obscuring of the light from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer or between it and its source of illumination

Example sentences:

• On average a total solar eclipse is visible from any location only once every few centuries.

Definition: form a circle around

Example sentences:

• The Southern Ocean encircles Antarctica and is home to a unique upwelling current that cycles carbon between the atmosphere and deep water.
• Soft lights encircle the room like a bright twilight horizon and diffuse across the ceiling so seamlessly that there appears to be nothing overhead.

An estuary is the wide part of a river where it joins the sea

A hemisphere is one half of the earth like the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere

A hemisphere is also one half of the brain. An example in a sentence:

• In most people, the left hemisphere is bigger than the right.

Inshore is an adjective, describing something is in the sea but close to the land. If something is inshore, it is in the sea but quite close to the land. If something moves inshore, it moves from the sea towards the land. An example in a sentence:

• In the Northeast, many adult fish reproduce out on the continental shelf, but their young develop to adulthood in inshore estuaries.

Definition: The layer of the earth’s atmosphere which contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons and is able to reflect radio waves. It lies above the mesosphere and extends from about 80 to 1,000 km above the earth’s surface.

Example sentences:

• The ionosphere reflects neither FM radio nor broadcast television, itself a part of the radio spectrum.

Definition: he rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.

Example sentences:

• After new oceanic crust forms, the lithosphere cools and thickens as it moves away from the ocean ridge. An alternative to an active mantle thermal anomaly is greater stretching of the mantle lithosphere than the crust

There are two types of eclipse: solar eclipse and lunar eclipse. A solar eclipse happens when the Moon, on its journey around the Earth, happens to pass between the sun and the Earth for a moment. A solar eclipse can only happen during a phase of the lunar cycle where the Moon lies between the Earth

Definition: Relating to the ocean

Example senences:

• The occurrence of major pulses of oceanic water has proved unpredictable, being non-existent during the 1980s. The two eastern forks of Long Island jut into oceanic waters, creating a mixing zone for currents and coastal and offshore migratory species.

To precipitate is to cause (something solid) to become separated from a liquid especially by a chemical process. For example:

• When substances are precipitated by inorganic or organic processes the material is known as chemical sediment.

A precipitate action or decision happens or is made more quickly or suddenly than most people think is sensible. For example:

• I don't think we should make precipitate decisions.
• Many of our current problems have been caused by precipitate policy making in the past.

Definition: winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on the Earth's surface

Example sentences:

• Prevailing winds are winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on the Earth's surface.

A savanna is a rolling grassland scattered with shrubs and isolated trees, which can be found between a tropical rainforest and desert biome. Not enough rain falls on a savanna to support forests. Savannas are also known as tropical grasslands. They are found in a wide band on either side of the equator on the edges of tropical rainforests.

Savannas have warm temperature year round. There are actually two very different seasons in a savanna; a very long dry season (winter), and a very wet season (summer).

Definition: Either of the two times in the year, the summer solstice and the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky at noon, marked by the longest and shortest days.

Example sentences:

• The minimum length of shadow during a day is less in summer than in winter and at the solstices it changes from lengthening to shortening or visa versa. Now that the solstice has passed, winter is officially upon us.

The adjective "subterranean" describes something that is under the ground or below the surface of the earth. For example:

• A subterranean river or tunnel is under the ground.
• The Japanese Gardens' coral reef, situated in the western tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is considered one of the most beautiful reefs on earth, contains many fish which are indigenous to it, and exhibits a unique construction of the subterranean landscape.

The noun terrain is used to refer to an area of land or a type of land when you are considering its physical features. For example:

• The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.
• Despite the fact that Japan as such has mountainous terrain and poor soils, the climatic conditions have made it possible to grow a variety of crops

Tidal means relating to or produced by tides. 

Example sentences:

• The movement of water associated with tides can also result in the formation of tidal currents.
• The tidal stream or current gradually decreases in the shallows.
• The 20-minute boat ride through a maze of tidal rivers and marshes is wonderful.

Plants, trees, and flowers can be referred to as vegetation.

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Solstices are opposite on either side of the equator, so the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa.