IELTS Collocations

a sense of pride

a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that you get when you, or sb connected with you, have done or achieved sth good.

a slave to fashion

sb who is influenced too much by fashion.

a streaming cold

a heavy cold.

a surge of anger

a powerful rush of an emotion or feeling of anger.

a tough choice

a difficult choice.

abuse drugs

to use illegal drugs in a way that is harmful to your health

abuse of power

the harmful, unethical or improper use of authority by sb who has that authority.

accept a challenge

to agree to do sth difficult or dangerous that needs a lot of skill, energy, and determination to deal with or achieve, especially sth you have never done before.

accept an apology

to forgive sb who says they're sorry for doing sth wrong or for causing a problem.

accept an invitation

to agree to spend time with sb socially or to come to a social event after getting an invitation.

accept responsibility

to take the blame for sth bad that has happened.

accept a defeat

to accept the fact that you cannot succeed in doing sth and stop trying to do it.

aches and pains

minor pains that are continuous and unpleasant due to physical work or old age, but usually not very serious.

achieve a goal

to do sth that you'd planned or hoped to achieve.

act within the law

not do illegal things

active ingredient

the chemically active part of a drug, medicine or pesticide that makes it work.

admit defeat

to accept that you can't achieve a goal or succeed in doing sth and stop trying to do it.

adoring fans

fans who show much love to a particular band or singer.

advertising campaign

a series of advertisements that will be used to promote a product or service.

advertising agency

a company that creates, plans, and handles advertisements for its clients.

advertising budget

the amount of money a company is willing to pay for advertising.

against the law

illegal; not allowed by the law/rules

air quality

a measurement of the cleanliness of the air in a particular place.

aisle seat

a seat in a train, plane which is next to an aisle.

all along

all the time; from the very beginning

almost certainly

almost definitely

alternative energy

power or electricity produced by using energy from moving water, wind, the sun, and gas from animal waste.

alternative medicine

medical treatments using natural substances and traditional knowledge such as homeopathy and acupuncture, plants instead of artificial drugs and modern surgery.

an awful lot

a very large amount

ancient history

things that happened a long time ago and no longer new, interesting, important or relevant.