What B2 vocabulary means
B2 learners understand the main ideas of complex texts on concrete and abstract topics, interact with native speakers fluently and give clear, detailed opinions. B2 vocabulary is the language of argument and nuance: consequence, reluctant, anticipate, genuine, and many words for society, science and the media.
B2 is where unsimplified reading opens up: young adult novels, magazines and most online articles become readable, with a few look-ups per page. It is also the level most exams for university study and work ask for.
The 100 most common B2 words
These are the words on the B2 list you will meet most often in real English texts. Start with them.
- found
- god
- times
- united
- means
- community
- known
- project
- data
- media
- energy
- lower
- version
- federal
- minister
- damn
- hell
- related
- contract
- campaign
- master
- stock
- conference
- user
- purchase
- moving
- western
- particular
- commission
- employee
- identify
- trial
- factor
- expected
- reference
- investment
- growing
- division
- executive
- environment
- multiple
- learning
- fighting
- grand
- loan
- candidate
- literally
- cast
- overall
- planning
- primary
- profile
- payment
- profit
- estate
- ban
- quote
- prior
- decade
- reaction
- actual
- species
- faith
- previously
- prime
- tough
- understanding
- sexual
- theme
- billion
- shooting
- suck
- abuse
- institution
- remains
- client
- route
- edit
- marketing
- liberal
- neither
- crew
- sector
- core
- evil
- draft / draught
- elect
- technical
- parliament
- existing
- label
- revenue
- corporation
- phase
- willing
- crack
- proposed
- reform
- senator
- procedure
B2 words by part of speech
| Part of speech | Most common examples |
|---|---|
| Nouns | god, means, community, project, data, media, energy, version, minister, hell |
| Verbs | found, project, lower, purchase, identify, cast, ban, quote, suck, edit |
| Adjectives | united, known, federal, damn, related, moving, western, particular, expected, growing |
| Adverbs | damn, literally, overall, previously, neither, originally, specifically, solo, ultimately, somewhat |
How many words do you need for B2?
This list has 2,378 words. Together, the lists from A1 to B2 contain 6,719 words. The CEFR itself does not define word counts; these figures are the size of the CEFR-J and Octanove lists. Your real vocabulary also includes names, new words and specialist words that no list covers.
To measure your overall vocabulary, take the English vocabulary size test; it also estimates your CEFR level.
How to learn B2 words
Most B2 words are met in reading long before they are used in speech. Read widely, notice words that appear more than once and review them in their sentences; that is how they move from recognition to use.
- Use the self-test above to see what share of the B2 words you already know.
- Pick one of the free B2 English books and start reading.
- Tap any word you don't know in Okuzeka to see its meaning in that sentence, in your language.
- Save useful words as flashcards with their sentences and review them over the next few days.
- When you score above 85%, move on to the C1 list.
Where this list comes from
The A1–B2 words come from the CEFR-J Wordlist, compiled by the CEFR-J project at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Okuzeka kept the single-word headwords and sorted them by word frequency. Other lists, such as the Cambridge English Vocabulary Profile or the Oxford 3000/5000, may give some words a different level, and a word's level can depend on the meaning being taught.
