Health vocabulary: the words that lift a familiar topic.
Health is one of the most frequent themes in the whole test, in Task 2, in Part 1 and in Part 3. Everyone has a view on diet, exercise and healthcare; the marks are in precise, topic-specific language. Swap the everyday word for the right collocation and the same point reads a band higher.
Why this matters. Lexical Resource is a quarter of your mark, and on a familiar topic the examiner has heard “health is very important” a thousand times. The lift is not rarer words; it is accurate collocation, a balanced diet, a sedentary lifestyle, chronic illness, preventive care, used naturally. A common medical phrase used correctly beats a showy word used wrongly, every time.
Four clusters that cover most Health questions.
You do not need a glossary. You need a handful of accurate collocations in each of these areas, ready to deploy.
Lifestyle & prevention
a balanced diet · physical activity · a sedentary lifestyle · preventive measures
How people stay well, and the habits that decide it, the prevention angle most Task 2 questions reach for.
A balanced diet and regular physical activity prevent many chronic illnesses.
Illness & treatment
chronic illness · contract a disease · diagnosis · medication
What goes wrong, and what is done about it, the clinical vocabulary that keeps an answer precise.
Early diagnosis lets doctors treat a condition before it worsens.
Healthcare systems
publicly funded healthcare · medical staff · waiting lists · private treatment
Who provides care, and who pays for it, the policy angle Part 3 reaches for.
Publicly funded healthcare guarantees treatment regardless of income.
Public health & policy
life expectancy · the obesity epidemic · health awareness · sanitation
The population view, the trends and measures governments act on.
Rising life expectancy places new pressure on health services.
Precision beats rarity
The Lexical Resource trap is reaching for a “big” word and using it wrongly, “maladies” dropped in where “illnesses” would do, “corpulent” for ordinary overweight. A common medical collocation used correctly (chronic illness, a balanced diet) scores higher than a rare word used incorrectly. Reach for the precise phrase, not the impressive one.
The same point, from Band 6 to Band 8.
At Band 5
Health is discussed with very general words (sick, doctor, medicine, good), repeated often, with occasional wrong collocations (make sport, do a sickness). Precise topic vocabulary (chronic illness, preventive care) is absent, and meaning becomes vague when a less familiar idea is attempted.
At Band 6
“Health is very important, so people should eat good food and do exercise to not get sick.” The idea is fine, but the language is general, “good food”, “do exercise”, and could be about almost anyone.
At Band 7
“Maintaining a balanced diet and regular physical activity is essential, as it reduces the risk of chronic illness.” Topic-specific collocations (a balanced diet, physical activity, chronic illness) carry real information.
At Band 8+
“Investing in preventive healthcare is far more cost-effective than treating chronic illness, since it eases the long-term burden on publicly funded services.” Precise lexis, abstraction (preventive healthcare), and a controlled complex sentence.
The upgrade most worth making.
Each swap takes a vague, everyday phrase and replaces it with the collocation an examiner expects on this topic. Use them where they fit naturally, not all at once.
| Instead of… | Use… | For example |
|---|---|---|
| healthy food | a balanced / nutritious diet | A balanced diet lowers the risk of disease. |
| not moving much | a sedentary lifestyle | A sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity. |
| doing exercise | physical activity / regular exercise | Regular physical activity strengthens the heart. |
| get ill | fall ill / contract an illness | Children often contract illnesses at school. |
| long illness | a chronic condition | A chronic condition needs ongoing care. |
| free healthcare | publicly funded healthcare | Publicly funded healthcare widens access. |
| stop disease | prevent disease / preventive care | Preventive care reduces hospital admissions. |
| mental problems | mental health issues | Mental health issues are now widely recognised. |
Two cautions. Do not carpet-bomb the answer with every term, accuracy and natural fit matter more than density. And keep it formal but not clinical: illness and condition are both fine; do not force rare jargon you cannot control. For the general method behind upgrading by band, see vocabulary & cohesion →
Say it another way.
The Lexical Resource descriptors reward paraphrase, and an answer that echoes the question’s own words proves nothing about your range. Each row takes a phrase the question will hand you and shows the version worth writing instead.
| The question says… | You can write… | For example |
|---|---|---|
| people should exercise more | take regular physical activity | Adults who take regular physical activity halve their risk of chronic illness. |
| sitting all day | a sedentary lifestyle | A sedentary lifestyle undoes in hours what the gym builds in one. |
| illnesses that last for years | chronic conditions | Health systems built for accidents now face chronic conditions instead. |
| free healthcare | publicly funded healthcare | Publicly funded healthcare treats illness as shared risk, not private luck. |
| stopping illness before it starts | preventive care / preventing disease | Preventive care is the only medicine that gets cheaper the earlier it is taken. |
One caution. Paraphrase the idea once, early, and then move on. Recycling every synonym you know reads as display, not control, and control is what the band descriptors actually reward.
Twenty to drill.
Choose the more precise, topic-appropriate option for each gap. Press Check answers for your score and the reason behind each one. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ten to produce.
Recognising the right word above is the easy half. Now type the word each sentence needs. The first letter is given, and every answer appears somewhere on this page. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Then use it where it counts. Now take it into the exam. This is a set topic in the essay question bank, so drill it there next, and let the word upgrader ladder the plain words you still fall back on.
You can collect topic words. Using the right one, accurately, under timed pressure is the work.
Memorised “big” words used wrongly cost marks; precise collocations used naturally earn them, and the difference is hard to judge in your own writing.
In a lesson I mark your topic vocabulary the way an examiner does, where a collocation is exactly right, where it is forced, and where a plain word would have been stronger. Lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English; the first lesson doubles as a full assessment. This page is drawn from the vocabulary work in The Proper English Grammar Guide to IELTS Speaking.
The book of the method
The Proper English Grammar Guide to IELTS Speaking
The method this site drills for free, written down properly: five response frameworks, thirteen grammatical structures taken to automation, vocabulary by band, pronunciation with audio demonstrations one scan away, and first-language guidance for eight language families. 614 pages, built from more than two thousand documented one-to-one lessons. Most guides teach every candidate the same English; this one starts from what your first language makes you do.
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