The Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon™

The Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon (OPAL) is a set of four word lists that together provide an essential
guide to the most important words and phrases to know in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP).
This list gives around 370 important phrases for academic writing, grouped into 15 functional areas.

Written phrases
1. Specifying topics and relations between ideas
in terms of in respect of the idea that
in relation to from the point of view of in the field of
in/within the context of from the perspective of in the area of
with respect to focus on in the study of
with regard to in particular our understanding of
related to in question an understanding of
relating to as part of a better understanding of
the relationship between the question of (whether or not) the assumption that
as to the concept of the aim/purpose of this study/chapter/
concerned with the idea of article
linked to the notion of beyond the scope of (this book/article/
relevant to the problem of chapter)
in accordance with the issue of will be discussed in more detail

2. Drawing attention to something or focusing on it

it is important (to) in this case to take account of
it should be noted that the importance of to be aware of
it is important to note that (one of) the most important it is difficult to
it is interesting to note that it is not surprising that the purposes of
it is worth noting that the need for/to the benefits of
it is important to remember that there is a need for/to (to) note that
it is important to realize that the significance of an important role in
it is important to understand it is necessary to at the heart of
it is important to recognize/be aware of/ it is useful to if and only if
bear in mind (to) take into account in fact
in the case of (to/should/need to) be taken into account

3. Hedging and expressing degrees of certainty

it may be the likelihood of as a whole
appears to be the potential for assume that
does not appear to be has/have the potential to it is reasonable to assume that
seems to be based on the assumption that it is fair to say that
it could/can be argued that the view that more or less
argue(s) that considered to be in general
held that to suggest that is/are likely to be
claim that it is clear that is/are/were more likely to (be)
it is (not) possible to/that it is not clear (are) less likely to
it is impossible to (this) is not to say/suggest that is/are likely to
it may be possible to there is no reason to it is likely that
the possibility of there is no doubt that be expected to
the probability of it is difficult to see (how)

4. Explaining and defining

in other words in such a way (that) to account for
(is) (often) referred to as in a way that reasons for
refer(s) to (as) a way of the reason for this is that
this means that (be) regarded as it is for this reason that
this does not mean that (can) be thought of as for a number of reasons
in the sense that/of the definition of can be described/explained in terms of
in this way is defined as

© Oxford University Press 1/3

5. Giving examples or presenting evidence
such as it can be shown that tend to
for example it has been shown that characterized by
for instance have shown that in the light of
as in evidence of/that/for as in the case of
as shown in data on this is (not) the case
according to research on see also
is/are shown in support for in the form of
can be seen (as/in) it has been suggested that (as) a form of
it can be seen that it has been argued that different types of
as we have seen in some cases a/the type of
as we shall see (by/from) the fact that a kind of
it is easy to see that are based on kinds of
(is) an example of basis for in a number of ways
is a good example of can be found in in a variety of ways
show(s) that (was/have been) found to be in so far as
indicate(s) that found that
has/have been shown to (be) observed in

6. Expressing aims, causes and effects

in order to the way(s) in which (as) a means of
so that the manner in which the influence of
(be/is) due to is based on is related to
may be due to on the basis of/that (as) a source of
(be) due to the fact that (is/are/be) associated with derived from
as a result (of) association between can be used to
is a/the result of involved in can be applied to
result(s) in responsible for on the part of
because of to ensure that at the expense of
caused by tend(s) to be for the purpose(s) of
the cause(s) of give rise to play a role in
the effect(s) of by means of play(s) an important role (in)
the/an effect(s) on lead(s) to an important role to play in
the impact of can/may lead to play a key role in
an impact on so as to an integral part of
subject to such that lies at the heart of
depend(s) on a change in in the event of
dependent on is consistent with have a significant impact on
determined by (as) a consequence of is the most common cause of
in response to the consequences of

7. Making contrasts
rather than difference(s) in with the exception of
as opposed to a number of different while at the same time
in contrast to different from in spite of the fact that
in contrast variation in is not the same (thing) as
on the other hand whether or not the other end of the spectrum
on the one hand this is not the case
the difference between not necessarily

8. Comparing
compared with/to in much the same way (as) the corresponding
relative to similar to (that of) corresponding to
in the same way (as/that) consistent with the advantages and disadvantages of

9. Adding
as well as in addition and so on
as well (not only) but also a combination of

10. Expressing quantity/degree and increase/decrease

the/a number of (in) a (wide) variety of increase in the number of
there are a number of (in) a/the (wide) range of a/the reduction in
the amount of in the range of reduction in the number of
the level of a large number of the degree of
a high level of a small number of the degree to which
the rate of an/the increase in a high degree of

© Oxford University Press The Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon™ 2/3

the extent of a series of the total number of of the total
the extent to which the most common the frequency of to a greater or lesser extent
to the extent that is equal to the prevalence of more/greater/higher/less/
the size of a measure of one or more of lower than
the growth of the percentage of by a factor of
the rise of the/a proportion of is a measure of
high levels of the ratio of in part

11. Expressing the existence/non-existence of something

in the presence of (even) in the absence of (any) the presence or absence of the vast majority of
the existence of the/a lack of the majority of

12. Referring to the text and to other texts

in the course of in this chapter as follows in the literature
in this study of this chapter the above et al
of this study in the previous/next section the former/latter at the beginning of
in the study the following the work of

13. Referring to time

in the future in the past (over) a period of time at the same time
in recent years prior to over time in turn

14. Phrases with (the) (noun) of

(by/with) the use of the risk of the creation of the performance of
(in) the development of (as/is) a function of the distribution of the implementation of
the role of the quality of the emergence of the availability of
the nature of the study of the meaning of the content of
the basis of the application of the principle of aspect(s) of
the form of the formation of the introduction of characteristics of
the value(s) of the ability to/of the analysis of feature(s) of
in the process of the evolution of the effectiveness of elements of

15. Miscellaneous
his or her he or she men and women

OPAL has been created with reference to the following corpora: the Oxford Corpus of Academic English (OCAE),
the fiction subcorpus of the Oxford English Corpus (OEC), the spoken element of the British National Corpus (BNC)
and a subset of the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus, developed within the University of Warwick
and for which relevant permissions have been obtained. BASE was developed at the Universities of Warwick and
Reading under the directorship of Hilary Nesi and Paul Thompson. Corpus development of BASE was assisted by
funding from BALEAP, EURALEX, the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

© Oxford University Press The Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon™ 3/3