22 Upward Trend Verbs [IELTS Writing Task 1/ Vocabulary]

In the IELTS Writing Task 1, the task gives the candidates a chart or any kinds of visualized information. It asks you to describe the given data with a 150-word essay. Therefore, in order to improve the IELTS Writing band score, what do you need to do? You need to deepen your vocabulary pot with words regarding figures and trends. Did you know that there are more than twenty upward trend verbs?

In this (rather short) article, I will give you every necessary detail about such words. These words will help you diversify your vocabulary in your writings (especially in the Writing Task 1). Lexical resource criteria will determine around one-fourth of your score in the Writing test. Don’t worry about exam stress making you forget these words. At the end of this post, I will also give you some tips to help you remember them. You will overcome it, I promise!

What makes eJOY’s 22 words describing an upward trend list different?

Nowadays, it seems that every IELTS related website has their own list of words you need to know. They all use very catchy titles to catch your attention. Yet, the basis of these lists is all the same. What makes eJOY’s list of twenty-two words regarding an upward trend is the details and the work we’ve put into it. We do not simply give you a list of words and their definitions. Instead, we give you every information you need to know about them. I will also give you some examples of how you should use these words. Every section comes with perfectly detailed contexts. That’s to help you understand different uses of them. It will help you recognize what makes a word (or phrase) different from another. As a result, you will remember them by heart. These are what our list (in table form) includes:

1. The word

Of course, I have to include the words themselves. How can I talk to you about the words if you do not know what these words are?

2. Pronunciation

Pronunciation plays an important role in learning English. Knowing how to actually pronounce the words would help you remember them. If you know how to write a word, but do not know how to pronounce it, you are more than likely to forget about it the very next day. As a result, you will not be able to utilize these precious words you have spent so much time learning about them. That would be an absolute waste of time and resources.

3. English meanings

When learning new English words, many have the tendency to look up only for the meaning in our mother tongue. In my case, in particular, that’s Vietnamese meaning. This is a bad habit for your language learning approach. You can only have the knowledge of English in your first language mindset. That would block your effort in broadening and deepening your vocabulary. That would affect as well as knowledge in using appropriate lexical resources. I personally (try to) never look up Vietnamese meaning of English words. In my opinion, you should only search for Vietnamese meaning of a word in certain cases. When you do not understand the English meaning after reading carefully, for example.

It’s important to remember that Vietnamese and English are two tremendously different languages. Vietnam and England are two different countries, with varying cultures and mindsets. Understanding the usage of a word and fluently using it might be hard. How to be able to do that, you may ask? Hence, you should have the knowledge of that word in both the English language and your first language.

Letter blocks — Languages go hand in hand with culture (Source: Pexels)

4. Past form of verbs

The information and data are usually visualized in the IELTS Writing Task 1. (Most of the time in the forms of a graph or diagram.) These data are actually, for the most part, recorded in the past. That means paying attention to the correct tense of verbs in your writing is important.

There are some irregular verbs in the English language. Irregular verbs mean their past form do not follow the formula of ‘original verb’ + ‘-ed’ suffix. We usually acknowledge verbs that follow the aforementioned formula as regular verbs. Different irregular verbs have different past forms. For example, the past form of ‘go’ is ‘went’, not ‘go-ed’. The past form of ‘be (is/are)’ is ‘was/were’, not ‘is-ed’ or ‘are-ed’.

5. Examples

The final section includes examples of these words in different contexts. They range from formal presentations to casual conversations. This helps you understand how to use the words. Moreover, it explains how to speak them like native speakers. This is an important one, so do not skip it.

The eJOY’s list of 22 verbs describing an upward trend

No.	Word/Phrase	Pronunciation	English meaning	Past form	Example(s)
1	climb	UK /klaɪm/ US /klaɪm/	If a price, number, or amount climbs, it increases	climbed	As a result, our costs have climbed rapidly in the last few years. Consequently, the stock market climbed 24 points. In contrast, her new novel climbed high on the bestseller list.
2	go up	UK /ɡəʊ ʌp/ US /ɡoʊ ʌp/	to move higher, rise, or increase	went up	As a result, the average cost of a new house has gone up by five per cent to £276,500. Her salary will go up by a hefty 10%. The area has recently become very fashionable and house prices are going up. We’d like to see the baby’s weight going steadily up.
3	grow	UK /ɡrəʊ/ US /ɡroʊ/	to increase in size or amount	grew	Therefore, the labour force is expected to grow by two per cent next year. As a result, football’s popularity continues to grow. By now the road network was growing at an alarming rate as a result. Similarly, the database will grow in size as necessary. In contrast, turnover grew to more than $100,000 over three years.
4	increase	UK /ɪnˈkriːs/ US /ɪnˈkriːs/	to (make something) become larger in amount or size	increased	As a result, car use is increasing at an alarming rate. Furthermore, the cost of the project has increased dramatically/significantly since it began. Hence, the population has increased by 15 per cent. As a result, we have managed to increase the number of patients treated. For the reason that, sunbathing increases your risk of getting skin cancer. As a result, incidents of armed robbery have increased over the last few years. Finally, our main aim is to increase sales by 12% this year.
5	jump	UK /dʒʌmp/ US /dʒʌmp/	to increase suddenly by a large amount	jumped	As a result, house prices have jumped dramatically. Furthermore, exports jumped by 500 per cent during the decade. Therefore, the cost of building the road has jumped by 70 per cent. As a result, I wouldn’t expect the interest rate to jump again for some time. Similarly, Williams jumped from 39th to 5th in the world rankings. As a result, profits jumped by 15% last year. Finally, the price of the shares jumped after the takeover announcement.
6	rise	UK /raɪz/ US /raɪz/	to increase	rose	Salaries will continue to rise in line with inflation. Inflation is rising at/by 2.1 per cent a month. Rising unemployment is our biggest problem. Temperatures will rise steadily towards the end of the week. Interest rates rise and fall according to the health of the economy. Even motor fuel rose in price as the war continued. Used car sales have risen because of the increased cost of new cars.
7	rocket	UK /ˈrɒk.ɪt/ US /ˈrɑː.kɪt/	to rise extremely quickly	rocketed	House prices in the north are rocketing (up). Sales of milk in supermarkets are rocketing. Inflation rocketed in the period between the wars. Stock prices rocketed to their highest level yesterday. Their team rocketed to the top of the League. Sharon Stone rocketed to fame in the film “Basic Instinct”. His performance rocketed him to stardom.
8	surge	UK /sɜːdʒ/ US /sɝːdʒ/	to increase suddenly and strongly	surged	The company’s profits have surged. The dollar surged against the yen in the final half hour of trading. Shares surged to a record high. A feeling of love surged in his breast. The value of exports surged last year, recording an all-time high. Violence has surged in the Middle East.
9	take off	UK /teɪk ɒf/ US /teɪk ɑːf/	to suddenly increase in value or amount	took off	Her business has really taken off. The shares took off, climbing more than 130%. His career really took off after that concert. The newly launched electronic newspaper has really taken off.
10	shoot up	UK /ʃuːt/ US /ʃuːt/	to grow in size, or increase in number or level, very quickly	shot up	Petrol prices have shot up in the last six months. She’s shot up since the last time we saw her. Prices shot up by 25 per cent.
11	soar	UK /sɔːr/ US /sɔːr/	to increase quickly in amount, number, value, or level	soared	Unemployment has soared. Temperatures will soar over the weekend, say the weather forecasters. House prices soared a further 20 per cent. The Dow Jones was up 0.88% at 10,204.93 after soaring more than 210 points early in the day. Pollution levels are soaring all the time. Property prices have soared in the last two years. The cost of living continued to soar.
12	leap	UK /liːp/ US /liːp/	to increase, improve, or grow very quickly	UK: leapt US: leaped	Shares in the company leapt 250 per cent. The company’s shares leapt 17.5p to 210p. Sales leapt 40 per cent during the Christmas season. Sales have leapt 43% this quarter. He leapt to fame after his appearance in a Broadway play.
13	boom	UK /buːm/ US /buːm/	to increase or become successful and produce a lot of money very quickly	boomed	The leisure industry is booming. The housing market is booming. Interest in archaeology is booming. The market continued to boom
14	bounce	UK /baʊns/ US /baʊns/	to suddenly increase, often after falling to its lowest level	bounced	Even more, analysts say that the US economy has bounced. The Group’s shares bounced 20% yesterday as it unveiled its half-year results. As a result, the ball bounced off the goalpost and into the net. The government was admired for its ability to bounce back from crisis.
15	expand	UK /ɪkˈspænd/ US /ɪkˈspænd/	to increase in size, number, or importance, or to make something increase in this way	expanded	Production capacity could expand by up to 30%, thus bringing down prices. Even more, Britain’s universities expanded at an unprecedented rate at the end of the 20th century. As a result, the EU could be expanded to include former communist countries. Most noteworthy, we live in an expanding universe. Therefore, they expanded their retail operations during the 1980s. As a result, their economy has expanded enormously, while ours, by contrast, has declined.
16	double	UK /ˈdʌb.əl/ US /ˈdʌb.əl/	to become twice as much or as many, or to make something twice as much or many	doubled	As a result, profits doubled in one year. Therefore, they doubled his salary. As a result, company profits have doubled since the introduction of new technology. The government aims to double the number of students in higher education within 25 years as a result. As a result, the amount of recycled glass used in manufacture doubled in five years.
17	multiply	UK /ˈmʌl.tɪ.plaɪ/ US /ˈmʌl.tə.plaɪ/	to increase a lot in number or to make something do this	multiplied	Within the last 10 years, both sales and profits have multiplied. Most noteworthy, he has multiplied his fortune many times. Alzheimer’s Disease affects more than 4 million Americans today, and the number is expected to multiply even more rapidly as the population ages as a result. As a result, lawsuits against big drugs companies have multiplied in recent years.
18	gain	UK /ɡeɪn/ US /ɡeɪn/	to increase in amount or value	gained	For the reason that, on Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrials gained more than 52 points. Hence, good economic indicators caused the share index to gain (by) ten points. As a result, she had gradually gained weight since her wedding.
19	raise	UK /reɪz/ US /reɪz/	to increase the amount, level, or quality of something	raised	Finally, the government plan to raise taxes. In contrast, there is increasing pressure on exporters to raise prices in foreign markets. As a result, the bank raised interest rates. The increase in interest rates will raise the cost of living. The government’s decision to raise taxes has caused a great furore as a result.
20	escalate	UK /ˈes.kə.leɪt/ US /ˈes.kə.leɪt/	to rise or to make something rise	escalated	His financial problems escalated after he became unemployed. The escalating rate of inflation will almost certainly bring escalating prices. As prices escalated, fewer people could afford a mortgage on a house. Finally an effort to control escalating costs
21	ascend	UK /əˈsend/ US /əˈsend/	1) to move up or climb something 2) to rise to a position of higher rank	ascended	Finally, they slowly ascended the steep path up the mountain. In contrast, he eventually ascended to the position of chief executive. Through hard work and perseverance, she ascended through the ranks to become vice president.
22	swell	UK /swel/ US /swel/	to become larger and rounder than usual; to (cause to) increase in size or amount	swelled	Finally, the murmur swelled to a roar. The group recruited more members, swelling its ranks (= increasing its size) to more than 1.3 million. As a result, attendance figures have swollen to 37,000 this season. Likewise, holidaymakers swell the local population in summer.

Sources of references

How to actually remember these words?

Everyone wants to become proficient in these upward trend describing verbs. In order to do that, you should do these followings:

First, jot them down in a notebook or a notepad.
Also, practice constructing sentences with all the vocabulary.
Finally, Repeat this learning process. (Until you remember and use the words fluently.)

Nevertheless, this process might not be simple for some. Being too busy at work and/or having too little time to actually do any study are the main reasons. Or maybe it’s the boring and seemingly never-ending note taking that kills the joy of studying new words on you.

There is a tip that I want to share with you. With the development of technology, you are just one tap away from a whole world of new lexical resources.

How to enhance IELTS vocabulary in four simple steps

Step 1: First, download the eJOY eXtension for Google Chrome.

Step 2: Second, select a new word. eJOY will automatically show you its meanings. It shows the English and your preferred language meanings of that word.

Step 3: Simply tap ‘Add’ to save the word to your personal workbook.

Step 4: eJOY provides you with various games to practice those new words. Hence, you should utilize them.

Using eJOY’s extension to look up a word’s meaning.

You know what the best thing about the eJOY eXtension is? You don’t need to worry about you forgetting to practice those saved words or not knowing the right time to come back to revise them. Most importantly, our product already does that by using the latest spaced repetition algorithm. Usually, when you finish learning some new words, you forget them and then move on to other new words, which is not good at all. Therefore, eJOY avoids that by reminding you to practice right before you’re about to forget them.