IELTS Vocabulary: Mastering the Word ‘Increasingly’
Learn how to use ‘increasingly’ correctly in IELTS. This video covers the meaning, usage, and common mistakes associated with this important adverb. Improve your vocabulary and boost your IELTS score with practical examples and tips.
Mastering advanced vocabulary is crucial for achieving a high band score in IELTS, and today we’re focusing on a word that frequently appears in both the listening and reading sections: increasingly.
Word type: Increasingly is an adverb. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, describing how, when, where, or to what extent something happens.
Meaning: Increasingly means more and more as time passes. It describes a gradual increase or growth in the frequency, intensity, or extent of something over time.
Word history: The word increasingly comes from the root word increase, which originated from the Latin word increscere, meaning to grow.
The suffix ly was added to form the adverb, giving us a word that describes the process of becoming greater in amount, number, or intensity.
Antonyms: Some opposite words for increasingly include decreasingly, less and less, and diminishingly.
Synonyms: Words with similar meanings include progressively, gradually, more and more, and ever more.
Examples use in sentences: Let’s look at how increasingly is used in contexts you might encounter in IELTS:
Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in global politics. Cities are finding it increasingly difficult to manage waste as populations grow.
Employers are increasingly looking for candidates with diverse skill sets. The use of renewable energy sources is increasingly common in developed countries.
Common errors in use: One common mistake is confusing increasingly with increased. Remember, increased is an adjective or past tense verb, while increasingly is always an adverb.
For example, it’s correct to say The increased use of technology has made our lives easier, but when describing an ongoing trend, you would say Technology is increasingly used in everyday life.
Another error is using increasingly with adjectives that don’t allow for degrees of comparison. For instance, you can’t say something is increasingly unique, as unique is an absolute term.
To effectively use increasingly in your IELTS responses, try to incorporate it when discussing trends or changes over time.
This will demonstrate your ability to describe complex ideas and show off your advanced vocabulary. Remember to practice using this word in your speaking and writing to become more comfortable with it.
The more you use it, the more natural it will become in your language production.
