IELTS Map Vocabulary

Sep 6, 2022

IELTS Map vocabulary can be used by candidates to understand main phrases, languages and vocabularies in describing maps for IELTS Writing Task 1. Candidates need to fulfil the IELTS marking criteria in the form of task achievement, lexical resource, coherence and cohesion, grammar range and accuracy. Candidates with good vocabulary would be able to achieve a high IELTS band score in Writing Task 1.

IELTS academic writing task 1 provides candidates an opportunity to express their knowledge and views using their effective vocabulary and grammar. IELTS writing score is marked based on band scores. The band scores range from 0 to 9. Since the topics are very diverse, candidates must go through IELTS Writing practice papers to become familiar with a lot of topics.

Difference Between Location and Direction

To excel in the map-related questions of IELTS vocabulary, you need to understand the language of locations and directions. Here are the definitions of these two types included in the syllabus of the IELTS writing task 1 map vocabulary to ensure that you clearly distinguish between them:

Location – where something is about another object or place. The prepositions of place, e.g. at/in/on/by/beside/to/of/from, are used to describe where a particular thing/object is situated. Examples:

She lives in London beside the town hall
I sat next to a famous personality on the flight.

Direction – the position towards which someone moves or faces. You will also be expected to describe where things are maps and describe where changes have occurred. Although you could use ‘to the left’ and ‘to the right’, experts suggest that it is much better to make use of ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’, and ‘west’. Examples:

The church is located in the north-west side of the park
There is a stream south of the forest where we could set up camp.

Adverbs and Prepositions

The most important aspect of IELTS Map vocabulary are the following adverbs and prepositions:

North/South/East/West

To the north/To the south/To the east/To the west

To the left of/ To the right of

Upstairs/Downstairs

Clockwise/Anticlockwise

In the middle of = in the center of

Inside/Outside

Nouns

Housing area = residential area = sleeping area
Entrance = doorway
Edge = boundary = end = fringe
Crossroad = intersection = junction
Site = place = location
Area = field = zone

Verbs

Is located = is situated = lies = there is = is
Go up/Go down
Start by
Cross = pass over = cut across

Paraphrases for Maps

Be careful with the following paraphrases as most candidates get confused when they come across them. Following are the paraphrases that can be used for describing map IELTS task 1 vocabulary:

town center = city center/center of the town (make a note that ‘a town is not a city)

road = street (a road and street are very different from each other)

housing area = residential area is located = is situated / lies / is

By making an IELTS writing task 1 map vocabulary pdf of the aforementioned commonly occurring words and phrases, you can ace through the map vocabulary IELTS task 1.

Introduction

The following vocabulary for map IELTS task 1 can be used in the introduction section of writing task 1 to achieve a good IELTS band score:

Illustrates

Eg: The given map illustrates sections of population in different colours

Describes

Eg: The map clearly describes the flood prone regions in the state

Demonstrates

Eg: The given map demonstrates about the top five states with highest literacy

System of Coordinates

You must enhance your skills by constantly practicing IELTS writing papers where you will find that another set of very significant terms in the map vocabulary task 1 is the system of coordinates:

Axis Eg: The x-axis indicates the states.

Trend

Eg: The trends noticed from the map are positive.

Vertical axis Y

Eg: The vertical axis Y shows the distance covered.

Horizontal axis X

Eg: The horizontal axis X represents the participants.

Table Format

The following vocabulary could be used for map vocabulary task 1 based on a table format:

Row
Eg: The row runs horizontally in the excel sheet.

Column
Eg: The column runs vertically in the excel sheet.

Cell
Eg: In a worksheet, the cell is created with the intersection of a row and a coloumn.

Data

Eg: You can insert data in the worksheet to maintain records

Descriptive Words

IELTS Writing task 1 Map vocabulary is incomplete without the following list of descriptive terms for making map-related statements:

Provides detail of

Eg: The map provides details of the roadblocks in the town.

Reflects

Eg: The map reflects that the Chinese borders are expanding.

Illustrated

Eg: The map is illustrated with vibrant colors.

Describes

Eg: This map describes that the epidemic is spreading towards the south of the country.

Represents

Eg: Those red-shaded sections of the map represent the water-scarce areas.

Demonstrates

Eg: The flood-prone s are demonstrated in the map, by conducting a precipitation test.

Movement

Go up

Eg: I go up to the rooftop in the evening to sit and relax

Increase

Eg: She learnt to increase the speed of her bike gradually.

Peak

Eg: There is a lot of crowd in the beach during the peak season.

Thus, the above IELTS map vocabulary would help candidates in effectively preparing for their IELTS exam and help them expand their vocabulary and enhance their score.

Check- IELTS Writing Samples