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The Wordlists show the most common words and phrases that learners of English need to know in British English or American English. Each meaning of each word or phrase on the lists is given a level between A1 and B2 on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) scale.
You can use the Wordlists to:
The Wordlists are part of the English Profile Programme, which is a collaborative research programme registered with the Council of Europe and designed to produce Reference Level Descriptions for English. For more information about the Programme and the English Profile Network, which you can join, click here.
They are based on corpus-informed lexicographic research into frequency at sense level and extensive research using the Cambridge Learner Corpus, a collection of candidate examination scripts written by learners from all over the world, which currently comprises over 35 million words of electronic data. Combined with solid evidence of use in other sources, such as examination wordlists and classroom materials, this corpus confirms what learners can and cannot do at each level.
The Wordlists are a work in progress and are not set in stone. Their aim is to reflect what learners DO know, not what they MUST know. If you see something in the Wordlists that doesn't reflect your experience, or if you have other queries, do please let us know. English Profile is a community programme, and the more people contribute, the better the Wordlists will be!
To get started, select British or American English by clicking the British English or American English tab on the left.
British English is selected by default.
To browse the list of words, phrases and phrasal verbs from a particular level, choose a level. The A1-B2 list is selected by default.
Then click on the Browse A-Z link below.
The list of entries and subentries ranges for each letters is displayed alphabetically.
To view the list of entries and subentries ranges for one particular letter, select the appropriate letter from the list in the toolbar.
The first available letter is selected by default.
Note that in this version, only the letters D, J and K are available.
To view the list of words from each range, select the appropriate range. Then click on any result to display its entry in the middle of the page.
Type a word or phrase into the search box on the left and then either click on the Search button or press the Return key.
Remember to search for words starting with the letters D, J and K only.
All matching words are shown in the main screen area.
The closest matching words are displayed at the top of the results list under the 'Core results' header. All other matching words are shown underneath.
Click on the word you would like to see and the dictionary entry will be shown. The symbols and other information that are shown for each word are explained in point 4. You can click on the browser Back button to go back to your original search results list.
If you search for an inflected form of a word, such as ‘kept’, the root form ‘keep’ will be displayed.
Wildcards are symbols that represent letters or other characters. They are used to search for words that you don’t know how to spell, or words with particular endings or combinations of letters.
There are two wildcards that you can use:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ? | Represents one letter or character. |
| * | Represents any number of letters or characters, including none. |
Wildcards can be typed in anywhere in a word to help you find the word you want.
For example:
If you type di?t in the search box, and click on the Search button, the words ‘diet’, ‘dirt’ and so on are displayed in the middle panel.
If you type do* into the search box, and on the Search button, you will find all the words beginning with ‘do’, including the word ‘do’ itself.
To find groups of words with particular features, click on the Advanced Search box:
The list of advanced search options will be displayed. You can choose what you want to search for by selecting specific labels from the drop down lists and clicking on the Search button. You can search on as many features as you wish.
Below, you can find an explanation of each list:
| Group | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Category | Choose to search only headwords, phrases or phrasal verbs. |
| Part of speech | Choose to search single parts of speech, such as adjectives, adverbs or plural nouns. |
| Grammar | Choose to search only a particular area of grammar, such as countable nouns or transitive verbs. |
| Usage | Choose to search only words used in a certain way, such as formal or informal. |
| Topic | Choose to search only words that are found in a particular topic, such as Food and drink or Clothes.
Please note that other topics are under development. |
| Prefixes | Choose to search only words that start with prefixes, such as dis-. |
| Suffixes | Choose to search only words that end with suffixes, such as -able. |
You can click Clear filters to begin a new search.
You do not need to specify an item in the Search box as leaving it blank will return all possible matches. However, do remember to set the level range to the one you want.
If you want to search only for entries that include a particular word, type the word in the box above the drop down lists, then click on the Search button. The list of dictionary results matching your search is shown in the main screen area.
The results list for all searches is shown in the main screen area.
If the search box is empty and you are looking for the list of words from a particular level or if you are using the ‘Advanced search’ options, the list of entries and subentries will be displayed alphabetically.
If you are looking up a word, the closest matching words are displayed at the top of the results list under 'Core results' header. All other matching words are shown underneath.
If there is more than one page of results you can click on the page numbers to select a specific page.
You can also choose to display more results per page by using the drop-down menu above the middle panel.
If no search results were found in the selected level, you'll get the appropriate information and advice where you can find more information about a searching word.
When you are within an entry, you can click on words to look up their level and meaning.
Note that in this version, only the words starting with the letters D, J and K will be found. The list of the closest matching words from all wordlists is displayed. Click on the word which best matches your query and the dictionary entry is shown. You can click on the browser Back button to go back to your original search results list. If the word you clicked is not found, you can go to Cambridge Dictionaries Online to check its meaning.
Dictionary entries are shown in the main screen area, when you click any result.
The headword is shown at the top of the screen followed by phrases and phrasal verbs.
If a headword has several meanings, each meaning is indicated by a guideword.
All the senses from the selected level are displayed in each entry and they are listed according to the levels. Lower level senses appear at the top of entry, higher level senses are listed below. If you selected different levels than 'A1-B2', you can see senses from 'A1-B2' level simply by clicking the All levels button in the top-right corner.
For each entry, the meaning of the word is shown in plain black text and examples are shown in italics.
Click on the button in the top-right corner to switch between Full view and Outline view. In Full view the Illustrative examples, Learner examples and Word Family panels are all displayed; in Outline view this information is hidden.
There are many icons, symbols and buttons to help you understand more about the word. Hold your mouse pointer over an icon or symbol to see what it is. Below you can find the explanations of the information shown for dictionary entries.
| Example | Explanation |
|---|---|
| do | The headword of an entry |
| do sth up | Phrasal verbs. |
 verb |
A section of the entry relating to a single part of speech. |
| do the washing-up | Phrases |
| REPAIR | Guidewords: indicate the meaning for words that have more than one meaning. |
| A1 | CEF level, Basic User, Breakthrough. |
| A2 | CEF level, Basic User, Waystage. |
| B1 | CEF level, Independent User, Threshold. |
| B2 | CEF level, Independent User, Vantage. |
| /duː/ | Pronunciation guide. |
| informal | Usage label. |
| (did, done) | List of inflected forms. |
| (Dr) | Variant form. |
| to perform an action or job | Definitions. |
| What do you usually do at the weekend? | Illustrative examples. |
| What can I do for you? | Typical collocations. |
|
|
Examples from the Cambridge Learner Corpus. |
Click to hear the pronunciation of a word.
To hear the pronunciation, you must have Adobe Flash Player installed.
Click here to open a document in Adobe Reader explaining the phonetic symbols.
To view this document, you must have Adobe Reader installed.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| [C] | Countable noun. |
| [I] | Intransitive verb. |
| [T] | Transitive verb. |
| [U] | Uncountable noun. |
A list of words that are formed from a common root are displayed in a blue frame.
Please use the standard browser print function.
If you would like to print out the background colours for level symbols, please make sure that your browser is set to print background colours and images. The way you enable the option for printing background colors and images differs depending upon which browser you're using. To check/change your default browser settings, please follow the instructions below:
Internet Explorer:
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab. Under Settings, scroll down until you find the Printing category. Make sure Print background colors and images is checked, and then click OK.
Firefox:
On the File menu, click Page Setup. On the Format & Options tab, under Options, select Print background (colors & images). Click OK.
Safari (for Mac):
On the File menu, click Print. On the Copies & Pages pop-up menu, click Safari. Select Print Backgrounds. Click OK.
This site is optimised for use on Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 6 and higher and Safari 3 for Mac.
UK Commissioning Editor: Caroline Thiriau
US Commissioning Editor: Paul Heacock
Chief Research Editor: Annette Capel
Editorial Project Managers: Elizabeth Walter, Sue Ullstein
Electronic Project Manager: Dorota Bednarczyk-Krajewska
Systems Management: Dominic Glennon, Daniel Perrett
US Editor: Carol-June Cassidy
ELT Advisers: Elaine Boyd and Helen Naylor
Cambridge ESOL Adviser: Fiona Barker
Recordings: Fraser Symon; Blue Planet Studio; dataformat; Charanga Ltd.
Graphic Design: Jamie Rusted
Additional lexicographic services: Cambridge Lexicography & Language Services Ltd.
© English Profile 2009
Based on the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (3rd Ed.) and the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary (3rd Ed.). Informed by the Cambridge International Corpus and with real-life examples of Learner English from the Cambridge Learner Corpus
Software © IDM S.A., France 2009 www.idm.fr
Project Management: Holger Hvelplund
Technical Management: Emmanuel Surleau
Data Processing: Emmanuel Surleau
Software Development: Emmanuel Surleau, David Gaspard and Mikaël Lebrun
Learner example:
