TOEFL® Vocabulary ebook

Something is exclusive is something people don't often have access to.  Exclusive can also mean sole or only. For example:

• The only way you might get reservations at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Los Angeles is to become famous.  
• The company became the exclusive soda vendor at the new stadium.
• The local newspaper got an exclusive interview and broke the news. 
• The company has exclusive rights to use the logo.
• In a peaceful and restful place, between sea and land, The Hotel Celeste offers exclusive and unforgettable stays. Away from the noise of cars and motorcycles, our guests are ravished by the swash of waves and the slow-paced life of the fishermen.
• The community area located on the first floor which includes a beauty shop, laundry, recreational and assembly hall, lounges and game rooms is for the exclusive use of our residents.  
• Our ranch has one 2,200 sq ft conference room and four midsize conference rooms, as well as many outdoor venues for activities. Groups with 60 or more people can rent the ranch for their exclusive use of overnight visits, meetings, workshops and other events. 
• The superior rooms in our hotel offer exclusive furnishings, and many feature a view of the hotel garden.

Exclusive of something = not including. For example:

• There is a sale on all merchandise exclusive of electronics.
• The rent is $1200 a month, exclusive of utility bills.

In today's slang, “exclusive” can also refer to dating, for example “Are you and Tom exclusive?” This means is Tom the only person you are dating?

A proposal is a suggested plan or offer. When making a marriage proposal, get down on one knee. When making a business proposal, try to stay off the floor. Used in a sentence, “I asked my client if they had considered the proposal.”Example sentences:

• They put forth a proposal to sell the company.
• The committee is reviewing the proposal for a new restaurant.
• Hello! This is Amy Kingston calling. I'd like to speak to Mr. Gladstone about the design proposals he sent me for my garden.

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Definition: The quality of being worthy of attention; importance:

Example senences:

• Adolescent education was felt to be a social issue of some significance. The significance of the imports is that those books are priced much lower.

Something substantial is large in size, number, or amount: If you want to say someone spent a lot of money without being too specific, you could say they spent a substantial amount of money. It is used as a way to be vague about just how large something is.

Example sentences:

• A substantial number of people commute to work each day.
• This will save us a substantial (meaning considerable) amount of money/time.
• Activities like that pose a substantial risk of injury.
• She purchased her tickets at a substantial discount.
• Radio astronomy has led to substantial increases in astronomical knowledge.
• There is substantial evidence that certain forms of solar energy either now or within a few years will be economically competitive with conventional sources of heat and power.

Tremendous means extraordinarily large in size, extent, amount, power, or degree.  We often use tremendous when something is very large but in a good way. For example, “Wow that cake is tremendous!” or “I would like a tremendous amount of money. “

Example sentences:

• He has a tremendous amount of energy.
• The engine's power is tremendous.​
• To become a lawyer, you have to learn a tremendous amount of information by heart
• Walking along the Great Wall of China was a tremendous experience.
• She is a writer of tremendous talent.
• That performance was tremendous!​
• This is a tremendous opportunity.

If you advocate (for) a particular action or plan, you recommend it publicly. There are three patterns:

• advocate (for) something
• advocate + Verb-ing
• advocate + that + Subject + Verb

Here are example sentences:

• I advocate (for) traditional teaching methods.
• They advocate abolishing the income tax. = They advocate that the income tax should be abolished.
• The plan is advocated by the president.
• They formed a group advocating for changes in the school system.

Definition: so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period

Example sentences:

• The trailer remake—with its cheesy music, antiquated graphics and gimmicky sound effects—catapults you back into 007’s past.
• The committee has recommended that all antiquated legal procedures should be simplified.

Attain and obtain are two different words that are often confused with each other by writers but both have their own distinct meanings.

Attain is a verb that means to accomplish, reach, or achieve something through effort. You can attain a goal that you set for yourself or attain a high-ranking position at your job. For example,

• After six months, I attained my goal of losing 15 pounds.
• Joe worked so hard he attained the position of Vice President.
• My parents were able to attain the American Dream and so was I.

Obtain is also a verb, but it means to get, to acquire, or to gain possession of something. For example,

• I obtained the latest copy of The Wall Street Journal.

While attain implies there was some effort put forth to produce an outcome, that is not necessarily the case with "obtain". For example,

• In college, you work hard to attain a degree.

-but-

• Once you graduate you will obtain your diploma.

This is a very subtle difference, but it is important to recognize it. In this example, you are working hard to attain your academic degree, but you physically obtain and take ownership of the piece of paper that is your diploma once you graduate.

Colossal can refer to an item's physical size, like a giant redwood tree, but it can also be used to describe the force or scope of something — like the colossal force of a thunderstorm that knocked down the redwood tree, or the colossal scope of your school project on the history of the redwoods that seems like it will never, ever end.  

Example sentences:

• Their business partnership turned out to be a colossal (meaning massive) failure.
• The meeting was a colossal (meaning huge, enormous) waste of time.
• There has been a colossal waste of public money.
• The task they face is colossal.
• The scope of this project is colossal.

Definition: Compliance with standards, rules, or laws

Example senences:

• The staff expressed the hope that the administration and governing board would act in conformity with these standards. (be in conformity with)

Definition: expression of an unfavorable opinion

Example sentences:

• The diplomat explained that people were booing, an expression of disapproval.

Definition: something that captures the imagination

Example sentences:

• The dramatic finish to the game left us speechless.
• Half an hour of exercise a day can have a dramatic effect on your physical well being.

Definition: to an extreme degree

Example sentences:

• The camera app itself is similar to the stock Android one, and photos are taken exceedingly quickly.

Excessive means beyond what is typical or normal. When something is excessive, there's way too much. 

• In today's world with overpopulation and excessive pollution, the environment is in serious trouble. 
• Excessive consumption of carbs and fats occurs when you eat more than the recommended daily values.
• Excess calories from fast-food meals can cause weight gain. 
• Excessive nutrient intake may result in excessive weight gain during pregnancy.
• Mia drinks excessive amounts of coffee. No wonder she's having trouble falling asleep at night.
• On average, we yawn five to ten times a day. However, if you feel that you're experiencing excessive yawning, talk to your doctor. Keep track of other symptoms you experience in addition to the yawning, such as drowsiness or fatigue. 

Expenditure is money spent on something. Expenditure is often used when people are talking about budgets. It is the government's job to decide what to do with tax money collected, or in other words, to determine the expenditure of public funds. The word is more than a long way of saying expense.  In business, expenditure implies an investment, something that will bring value over time. 

Here are some example sentences using the word expenditure:

• There's a significant increase in military expenditure last year.
• In 2020, the total expenditure on education in Taiwan increased to around 928.4 billion New Taiwan dollars.
• The company allocated a huge part of its expenditure on its expansion project.

Gigantic is an adjective used to describe something that's really big, as though it were made for a giant. You might call a skyscraper a gigantic building, especially if it towers over other buildings nearby.

Example sentences:

• Gigantic (meaning huge, monstrous) waves were crashing on the beach.
• He made a gigantic (meaning huge) mistake when he quit his job.
• She owns a gigantic house.
• She has a gigantic appetite.

Definition: of little importance or influence or power; of minor status

Example sentences:

• If the company can get over entrenched competition and some not insignificant cultural barriers, there’s no reason why America couldn’t get hooked on Line.

Definition: be amazed at; express astonishment or surprise about something

Example sentences:

• It was absolutely a marvel to see exactly how many different websites the free applications would make connections back to from a device.
• The Great Wall of China is one of the world's marvels.

A myriad or myriads of people or things is a very large number or a great variety of them. For example:

• They face a myriad of problems bringing up children. 
• The car comes in a myriad of colors. (meaning in many colors)
• There is a myriad of possibilities.
• Our cable providers offer a myriad of channels to watch!
• His brother owns a myriad of video games, more than I've ever seen!

Be aware that "a myriad of things" is singular. 

The word 'myriad' can be used as an adjective, meaning having a large number or great variety.  Here are example sentences:

• The old system's problems were myriad.
• She looked up at the myriad star.

Something that's old-fashioned is out of style or from the past. You could call an antique telephone old-fashioned, and you could also describe your elderly grandfather this way. Used in a sentence, “My parents are old-fashioned, so my friends weren’t allowed to spend the night.”

Something that's out-of-date is either old-fashioned or so old that it's invalid. An expired driver's license is out-of-date, and the out-of-date milk in your refrigerator is pretty likely to smell sour.  Another way to be out-of-date is to be hopelessly unfashionable, like grandparents' out-of-date kitchen, with its appliances from 1970. You can also use the words obsolete or outdated as synonyms for out-of-date, for most things.

Definition: being almost of the same type or time;comparable

Example sentences:

• The road runs parallel to the Ottawa River

Definition: Existing in or yielding great quantities; abundant:

Example sentences:

• Animals were plentiful for hunting, and there was an abundance of wild cereals on the mountain ridges

Proponent means someone who is in favor of something. 

Example sentences:

• She has always been a strong proponent of women’s rights.
• He was identified as a leading proponent of the values of progressive education.​
• He is a leading proponent of gun control.
• You might be a proponent of longer vacations, but your parents are proponents of a longer school year.

Definition: (Especially of food, money, or some other resource) insufficient for the demand

Example sentences:

• They saw their families and communities through difficult times, when money was scarce and the demands of rural life were very demanding.

Definition: The state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage

Example sentences:

• In a market economy it is as easy to fall as to rise, but in periods of scarcity and famine, easier to survive within such a system than outside it. the growing scarcity of resources.

Definition: Confirm or support (something that has been questioned):

Example sentences:

• The release of the film could be halted if a plagiarism claim is upheld by a High Court judge next week.

We often use "vast" to describe something that is large by distance. Things that are described as vast include oceans, seas, deserts, and the surface of the moon. For example

• A vast desert lay before us. 
• I would be very scared to be lost in the vast sea

The following collocations are often used

• the vast majority of something
• vast amounts of something = enormous amount of something = immense amount of something​​
• a vast difference between

Example sentences:

• She has a vast amount of knowledge on this subject.
• Medical students are required to learn and retain vast amounts of knowledge on the path to becoming physicians;
• A large shopping center would require a vast amount of space
• The policy is supported by the vast majority of citizens.
• The vast majority of people in Australia live in big cities.
• In the vast majority of cases, lung cancer is caused by smoking.
• There is a vast difference between them.