Vocabulary
Healthcare systems, treatment and lifestyle, one of the most common IELTS topics. With a practice exercise.
IELTS vocabulary for health comes up constantly. Whether governments should fund healthcare, whether people are less healthy than in the past, and how to encourage exercise are all standard Task 2 questions, and health appears in speaking Part 3 almost as often.
You do not need medical knowledge. What you need is the everyday professional vocabulary that lets you discuss the subject precisely instead of falling back on doctor, hospital and ill.
The words
Six groups. Learn one at a time and write your own sentence for each word.
Western medicine — treatment based on drugs and surgery.
Alternative healthcare — treatments outside that tradition, such as acupuncture.
Preventive care — treatment aimed at stopping illness before it starts.
Primary care — the first point of contact, usually a family doctor.
Acupuncture — needles placed at points on the body.
Chemotherapy — treating disease with chemical substances, commonly used against cancer.
Naturopathy — using natural ingredients to treat illness.
Surgery — an operation.
Medical practitioner — the formal term for a doctor.
Surgeon — a doctor who performs operations.
Specialist — a doctor with expertise in one area.
Paramedic — trained to give emergency treatment before hospital.
Public healthcare — funded by the state.
Private healthcare — paid for by the patient or an insurer.
Health insurance — a policy covering treatment costs.
Subsidise — when the state pays part of a cost.
Sedentary — involving a lot of sitting.
Obesity — being seriously overweight.
Life expectancy — how long people live on average.
Well-being — general health and happiness, including mental health.
You lead a sedentary lifestyle, place a strain on health services, raise life expectancy, tackle obesity, seek treatment, and make a full recovery.
Method
Six points that separate a Band 6 answer from a Band 7 one.
Sedentary lifestyle says more than does not move much, and it says it in two words. Precision is assessed, not just range.
A disease is a specific medical condition. An illness is the experience of being unwell. The two are not interchangeable.
Both exist. Preventive is more common in formal writing, and consistency matters more than the choice.
Most Task 2 health questions turn on who pays. Having the funding vocabulary ready saves thinking time on the day.
You can invent examples, but a made-up statistic about a named disease reads badly. Keep invented support general.
Well-being, stress, burnout and work-life balance appear regularly and are often the more interesting angle in an essay.
Practice
Choose the word that fits each sentence.
Read the whole sentence before choosing. Several options will be real words, and more than one will often nearly fit.
What is being tested is precision: which word means exactly what the sentence needs?
1A job that involves sitting for long periods is described as ______.
Sedentary. It describes a lifestyle or occupation involving a lot of sitting, and it is the word examiners expect in this argument.
2Treatment aimed at stopping illness before it begins is ______ care.
Preventive. Primary care is the first point of contact, usually a family doctor, which is a different idea.
3The formal term for a doctor is a medical ______.
Practitioner. A surgeon performs operations and a specialist works in one area, so both are narrower.
4Which is the natural pairing?
Place a strain on. You can also put pressure on. Learning the pairing matters as much as knowing the words.
5How long people live on average is their ______.
Life expectancy. Well-being covers general health and happiness, which is a different measure entirely.
6Which sentence is more precise?
B. Same idea, two precise terms and a natural pairing. This is exactly what Lexical Resource is assessing.
That is the commonest vocabulary problem at Band 6, and it is very hard to see in your own writing because each word looks correct on its own.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Recognising a word in a multiple choice is not the same as producing it accurately under time.
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Yes, one of the most frequent. Healthcare funding, lifestyle and exercise appear regularly in Task 2 and in speaking Part 3.
No. You are assessed on your English, not your medical understanding. Everyday professional vocabulary is enough.
A disease is a specific medical condition. An illness is the experience of being unwell. They are not interchangeable in formal writing.
Keep invented support general. A made-up figure about a named disease reads badly, whereas a general claim about rising rates is fine.
It is a legitimate and often more interesting angle. Well-being, stress and work-life balance are all standard IELTS vocabulary.
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Using the right word in the right place is the difference between Band 6 and Band 7, and it is the hardest thing to judge in your own writing.
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