TOEFL vocabulary lists and printable flashcards
The same decks the app schedules for spaced review, exported to paper in two shapes: a reference list to read and a cut-out card grid to test yourself with. Every list says how it was built, above the words.
Free, no account and no email address. toefl-2026-vocabulary-word-lists.pdf
The same words laid out as cut-out cards, word on the front grid and meaning on the back, aligned so a duplex print folds correctly. toefl-2026-vocabulary-flashcards.pdf
What is in it
- Every published Reach120 vocabulary deck, exported whole — the section corpora, the band separators, the phrasing decks and the topic lists.
- The derivation printed above each list: what the deck was built from and on what basis, rather than a label claiming it is "the essential" anything.
- Two shapes of the same material — a reference list you read and a card grid you cut up — so one download covers both ways of working.
- Definitions, part of speech and, where the deck records them, the example sentence and the weak-to-strong phrasing pair.
What it does not cover
- A frequency ranking of English, or a claim that these are the words that appear on the test. They are the words that appear in Reach120’s own 2026-format material and in answers Reach120 has scored, which is a different and checkable thing.
- Spaced review. Paper does not schedule; the app does, and the schedule is what makes a list stick.
- Audio. These decks are written material.
- Words captured privately by individual learners. Only published decks are exported.
16 lists, 1363 words
Both files carry every list below in full. Each one shows what it was derived from, its real size, and the first 12 words — follow a title to read the whole list on the site.
Reading — words in our 2026-format passages
120 words · reading section
These 120 words turn up across the widest range of Reach120's own Reading material. We mined 814 reading passages and question stems, kept every word used at least 3 times across at least 2 separate documents — 1583 words cleared both — and ranked the survivors by how many documents contain them. The last word on this list appears in 26. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- learn
- online
- time
- work
- person
- provide
- want
- traditional
- move
- new
- infer
- open
Listening — words in our 2026-format talks
120 words · listening section
These 120 words turn up across the widest range of Reach120's own Listening material. We mined 150 listening transcripts, kept every word used at least 3 times across at least 2 separate documents — 1479 words cleared both — and ranked the survivors by how many documents contain them. The last word on this list appears in 26. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- learn
- online
- time
- work
- person
- provide
- want
- traditional
- move
- new
- infer
- open
Speaking — phrases that carry fluency
27 words · speaking section
These 27 phrasings cover the 8 things you have to do in this part of the test. Each card gives the job you are doing, the phrasing that does it well, and the weaker phrasing it replaces — a low-scoring answer usually says the same thing, in worse words. No phrasing here carries a rate, and none can yet. Reach120 measures register by comparing strong answers with weak ones, and it holds almost no recorded answers to compare — our Speaking material is prompts and sentences to repeat, not answers. These chunks are written to the register of a strong spoken answer: a judgement, not a measurement, and it is labelled as one. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- i would definitely say
- if i had to choose one
- the short answer is
- let me think about that for a second
- that is an interesting question
- there are a couple of ways to look at this
- back when i was at school
- in my own experience
- speaking for myself
- this happened to me when
- it really comes down to
- that is why i would
Academic Discussion — stance, concession and qualification
28 words · writing section
These 28 phrasings cover the 7 things you have to do in this part of the test. Each card gives the job you are doing, the phrasing that does it well, and the weaker phrasing it replaces — a low-scoring answer usually says the same thing, in worse words. No phrasing here carries a rate. Reach120 has scored too few answers to this task to compare a strong group against a weak one, so these phrasings are written to the register of the answers our scorer marks highest — a judgement, not a measurement, and it is labelled as one. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- find this argument persuasive because
- share the view that
- there is considerable merit in
- this position is well supported by
- not convinced that
- question the assumption that
- the evidence points in the opposite direction
- this argument overlooks
- a fair point, although
- accept that
- granted, the objection has some force
- there is some truth in
Words that separate bands — Write an Email
21 words · writing section
Reach120 compared every Write an Email answer it has scored 24 or above (254 of them) with every answer scored below 18 (239). A word earns a place only if it appears in at least 10% of the high-scoring answers, in at least 2.5 times the share of the low-scoring ones, and in at least 20 high-scoring answers outright. 21 words clear all three bars. No learner's sentence is stored anywhere in this deck — only counts across the two groups. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- please
- receive
- request
- service
- available
- require
- expect
- return
- refund
- purchase
- confirm
- current
Write an Email — what to say and how to say it
28 words · writing section
These 28 phrasings cover the 7 things you have to do in this part of the test. Each card gives the job you are doing, the phrasing that does it well, and the weaker phrasing it replaces — a low-scoring answer usually says the same thing, in worse words. Reach120 compared the 254 Write an Email answers it has scored 24 or above with the 239 scored below 18, keeping words used in at least 15% of the high-scoring group and at least 2.5 times as often as in the low-scoring one. Not one phrasing here is built on a word that cleared all three bars. 3 rest on a word that is genuinely commoner in strong answers (inquire, please) but that our own prompts hand the writer, so it counts as what we asked about rather than how the answer was written. The card shows the rate and says where it came from. The other 25 carry no qualifying rate, because a phrasing assembled from ordinary words is invisible to word counting. That is exactly why this deck is built by function instead. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- at your earliest convenience
- could you possibly
- would appreciate it if you could
- would be grateful if you could
- draw your attention to
- the issue remains unresolved
- this has caused considerable inconvenience
- writing to raise a concern about
- apologize for any inconvenience caused
- please accept my apologies for
- regret that i was unable to
- take full responsibility for
Writing — academic vocabulary from our Discussion samples
120 words · writing section
This deck holds 120 words: 100 hand-written academic entries from Reach120's curated list, plus the 20 words used across the widest range of our 142 Academic Discussion sample responses. They are academic topic and reporting vocabulary — the words a discussion response is written ABOUT. They are not hedges, stance markers or connectives: those are function words the lexicon filters out by design, and the phrasal ones are multi-word items nothing mines yet, so no deck here teaches them. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- acquisition
- advocacy
- aesthetic
- algorithm
- allegory
- allocate
- ambiguous
- analyze
- anthropogenic
- assimilate
- autonomous
- autonomy
Academic General — words every subject uses
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Academic General vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 780 words tagged with this subject. 120 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 18 separate documents. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- learn
- time
- work
- person
- provide
- want
- traditional
- move
- new
- infer
- open
- think
Arts & Humanities — words for literature, art and criticism
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Arts & Humanities vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 161 words tagged with this subject. 120 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 3 separate documents. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- meaning
- look
- right
- build
- point
- develop
- quiet
- fall
- century
- practice
- subject
Business — words for markets, work and money
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Business vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 231 words tagged with this subject. 120 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 5 separate documents. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- offer
- good
- final
- cost
- direct
- office
- job
- limit
- shape
- matter
- card
- pay
Environment — words for climate, ecology and resources
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Environment vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 171 words tagged with this subject. 120 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 3 separate documents. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- change
- water
- environment
- grow
- building
- slow
- plant
- different
- meet
- tool
- air
- arrive
Health & Medicine — words for medicine, the body and public health
72 words · all sections
These 72 words are the Health & Medicine vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 72 words tagged with this subject. 52 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 2 separate documents. The other 20 are not in our content at all: they come from Reach120's curated academic list or were added to close a gap in the general academic core, and they carry no document count because there is nothing to count. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- sign
- night
- spread
- suggest
- health
- drink
- repair
- play
- stress
- brain
- appointment
- disease
Hedging and precision — sounding measured
24 words · all sections
These 24 phrasings cover the 6 things you have to do in this part of the test. Each card gives the job you are doing, the phrasing that does it well, and the weaker phrasing it replaces — a low-scoring answer usually says the same thing, in worse words. Reach120 compared the 254 Write an Email answers it has scored 24 or above with the 239 scored below 18, keeping words used in at least 15% of the high-scoring group and at least 2.5 times as often as in the low-scoring one. Not one phrasing here is built on a word that cleared all three bars. The other 24 carry no qualifying rate, because a phrasing assembled from ordinary words is invisible to word counting. That is exactly why this deck is built by function instead. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- in some circumstances this can
- it appears that
- the evidence suggests that
- this may partly explain why
- in my view
- inclined to think that
- my own position is that
- what strikes me most is
- as a consequence of
- one factor behind this is
- this gives rise to
- this in turn leads to
Science — words for scientific texts
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Science vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 403 words tagged with this subject. 120 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 8 separate documents. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- long
- material
- free
- form
- see
- call
- record
- small
- animal
- light
- know
- part
Social Science — words for history, economics and society
120 words · all sections
These 120 words are the Social Science vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 135 words tagged with this subject. 107 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 2 separate documents. The other 13 are not in our content at all: they come from Reach120's curated academic list or were added to close a gap in the general academic core, and they carry no document count because there is nothing to count. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- interaction
- education
- community
- lead
- share
- social
- city
- feel
- peer
- crowd
- ordinary
- family
Technology — words for computing, engineering and design
83 words · all sections
These 83 words are the Technology vocabulary in Reach120's bank, chosen from the 83 words tagged with this subject. 67 of them were mined from Reach120's own 2026-format passages, talks and question stems, and the least common of those still appears in 2 separate documents. The other 16 are not in our content at all: they come from Reach120's curated academic list or were added to close a gap in the general academic core, and they carry no document count because there is nothing to count. Reach120 wrote this practice material for the 2026 format — it is not ETS content, and any band figure beside it is a Reach120-scored estimate, not an ETS score.
- online
- system
- post
- platform
- technology
- machine
- phone
- portal
- interactive
- digital
- metal
- shuttle
Every question in these files is a Reach120 practice item taken from the bank our learners practise against. None of them is a real TOEFL test question, and nothing here is published, licensed, endorsed or reviewed by ETS.
What these lists are, and what they are not
Every list here was derived from material Reach120 owns: the passages and talks in our 2026-format bank, and the responses our scoring has read. That is why each deck carries its derivation above the words — a list built from a corpus can say what the corpus was, and a list somebody assembled cannot.
What no vocabulary list can honestly promise is that its words will be on your test. ETS does not publish a word list, and any site that implies one has invented it. These decks are useful because they concentrate the register the 2026 tasks are written in, not because they predict items.
How to work a list without memorising a list
- 1Start with the deck for the section you are weakest in, not the biggest one. The corpus decks are named for the section they came from.
- 2Cut the cards for the twenty words you did not know rather than the whole deck. A pile you can finish is worth more than a box you avoid.
- 3For the phrasing decks, read the weak form and the strong form together — those decks exist to replace something you already say, not to add a word you do not.
- 4Put the words you keep missing into the app so they get scheduled. Paper is good at the first pass and bad at the fourth.
Common questions
- Do I need an account to download these?
- No. Both files download directly from this page with no account and no email address, and every deck is readable on the site with its complete word list.
- Are these the words on the TOEFL test?
- No, and nobody can honestly publish that list. ETS does not release the vocabulary of its items. These decks are derived from Reach120’s own 2026-format material and from answers Reach120 has scored, which is what the derivation line above each list records.
- What is the difference between the two files?
- The same words in two layouts. The word-list file is a reference document to read and annotate; the flashcard file is a card grid to print and cut, laid out so the meanings line up with the words when printed double-sided.
- Why do some decks have far fewer words than others?
- Because a deck publishes only when it can honestly reach its floor from the material it was derived from, and it is never padded to a round number. A phrasing deck built from the patterns that separate bands is naturally smaller than a topic corpus.
- Is this real TOEFL material?
- Every question in these files is a Reach120 practice item taken from the bank our learners practise against. None of them is a real TOEFL test question, and nothing here is published, licensed, endorsed or reviewed by ETS.