Lesson 6: Essential Words for the TOEFL

Jun 7, 2016

chiefly ○ coarse ○ commonplace ○ comparatively ○ complex ○ conventional ○ curious ○ exceedingly ○ exclusively ○ immense ○ indeed ○ rigid ○ routinely ○ sufficiently ○ visibly

chiefly
[adv.] most importantly or most commonly
[Syn.] mostly

[adj.] chief

Houses are made chiefly of wood products.
Com is the chief crop of the Midwest.

coarse
[adj.] not fine or smooth, not delicate
[Syn.] rough

[adv.] coarsely
[n.] coarseness

Sandpaper is an extremely coarse material.
Wool clothing has certain coarseness in texture.

commonplace
[adj.] ordinary
[Syn.] frequent

Soon it will be commonplace to see the person to whom you are talking on the phone.
Female lawyers are commonplace in the United States.

comparatively
[adv.] being measured or judged by comparison
[Syn.] relatively

[adj.] comparative
[v.] compare
[n.] comparison

It was comparatively easy for him to learn baseball because he had been a cricket player.
If you compare algebra and trigonometry, you’ll discover that algebra is less complex.

complex
[adj.] difficult to understand or explain; having many parts
[Syn.] complicated

[n.] complexity

The businessmen astutely approached the complex production problem.
The universe has a complexity beyond comprehension.

conventional
[adj.] following accepted rules or standards
[Syn.] traditional

[adv.] conventionally
[n.] convention

Professor Canfield agreed with the conventional theory about the origin of the Basque language.
To become integrated into a society, you must learn the conventions of that society.

curious
[adj.] odd or strange; eager to learn
[Syn.] peculiar

[adv.] curiously
[n.] curiosity

A curious object was discovered in the remains.
Sally was curiously interested in the history of Alaska.
The Mars rover named Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support microbial life forms.

exceedingly
[adv.] very; to an unusual degree
[Syn.] extremely

[v.] exceed
[n.] excess
[adj.] excessive
[adv.] excessively

In tropical zones, it is exceedingly hot and humid.
It is not safe to exceed the speed limit.

exclusively
[adv.] no one else; nothing else; not shared with others
[Syn.] restrictively

[adj.] exclusive
[n.] exclusion
[v.] exclude

This room is used exclusively by the faculty.
They excluded everyone under age 21 from the contest.

immense
[adj.] extremely large
[Syn.] massive

[adv.] immensely
[n.] immensity

From the mountaintop you can see the immense valley.
She was immensely interested in the idea of teaching a foreign language.

indeed
[adv.] certainly; really (used to make a statement stronger)
[Syn.] truly

Did he indeed go to the infirmary?
It is very hot indeed.

rigid
[adj.] not easy to bend; firm, inflexible
[Syn.] stiff

[adv.] rigidly

The teacher was very rigid in his ideas about class attendance.
He adhered rigidly to his opinions about marriage.

routinely
[adv.] regularly, usually done
[Syn.] ordinarily

[adj.] routine
[n.] routine

She routinely gets a physical examination.
It is routine for students to become homesick at times.

sufficiently
[adv.] enough, in a satisfying manner
[Syn.] adequately

[n.] sufficiency
[adj.] sufficient
[v.] suffice

Jenny is sufficiently mature to make her own decisions.
Her income is sufficient for her needs.

visibly
[adv.] can be seen
[Syn.] noticeably

[adj.] visible
[v.] view

Ken was visibly upset about his performance evaluation.
Stars are more visible on a clear fall evening.

vision
[adv.] ability to see with eyes, power of imagination, especially with regard to the future
[Syn.] perception

[adj.] visionary

Symptoms can include headaches, blurring and double vision.
We know Einstein as a visionary physicist of his time.

Choose the synonym.
1. stiff
  1. delicate
  2. agile
  3. rigid
  4. astute
2. traditional
  1. arbitrary
  2. astounding
  3. conventional
  4. frequent
3. indeed
  1. truly
  2. albeit
  3. abroad
  4. only
4. curious
  1. apparent
  2. brilliant
  3. peculiar
  4. enhanced
5. adequately
  1. sufficiently
  2. deceptively
  3. intensely
  4. amazingly
6. immense
  1. abrupt
  2. massive
  3. ongoing
  4. complicated
7. exceedingly
  1. resiliently
  2. extremely
  3. assertively
  4. resolutely
8. visibly
  1. noticeably
  2. frequently
  3. persuasively
  4. encouragingly
9. ordinarily
  1. restrictively
  2. coarsely
  3. cautiously
  4. routinely
10. restrictively
  1. exclusively
  2. adversely
  3. roughly
  4. relatively
Choose the word that is closest in meaning to the underlined word in the sentence.
1. Water is easily the most complex of all the familiar substances that are single chemical compounds.
  1. conventional
  2. curious
  3. valuable
  4. complicated
2. Contrary to popular opinion, the origin of the circus is comparatively recent, having little in common with ancient Roman circuses.
  1. apparently
  2. relatively
  3. exceedingly
  4. sufficiently
3. The cotton gin was commonplace on many nineteenth-century farms.
  1. often required
  2. sorely needed
  3. frequently seen
  4. visibly absent
4. Under the microscope, cultivated silk fibers look coarse.
  1. rough
  2. rigid
  3. delicate
  4. immense
5. The sweet potato is chiefly grown in the southern United States.
  1. exclusively
  2. mostly
  3. rarely
  4. successfully

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