verb · academic
illustrate
/ˈɪləstreɪt/IL·lu·strate
Band 7+speakingtask2
to make something clear by giving examples, pictures, or comparisons
Examples
“The chart illustrates the steady growth in urban populations.”
“Let me illustrate my point with a short story.”
“The author illustrated the problem with a case study.”
Band 8 sentence
“To illustrate how language changes, think about how texting shortened whole phrases into two or three letters in just a few years.”
Collocations
- illustrate with
- clearly illustrate
Word family
illustration nounillustrative adjective
Common mistakes
illustrate about→illustrate
illustrate me→show me / give me an example
Say it for a higher band
5show→6demonstrate→7+illustrate
Synonyms
demonstrate
Easily confused
demonstrate
“The experiment demonstrates a clear link between diet and health.”
Related words
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In Sublist 5
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