Example
considerable (adjective)
Large in size or amount; formal and safe.
There was a considerable increase in the number of part-time workers.
Written by Fizza Butool Zaidi and Ali Zaidi
11 alternatives
Large in size or amount; formal and safe.
There was a considerable increase in the number of part-time workers.
Large and solid; common with amounts, sums and differences.
Spending on public transport saw a substantial rise after 2015.
Clearly noticeable. Common with change, difference, decline, contrast.
There was a marked difference between urban and rural internet use.
Easy to see, but not necessarily large.
There was a small but noticeable drop in attendance in 2018.
Sudden and large; describes speed as well as size.
A sharp fall in 2009 took sales to their lowest point.
Don't swap blindly: Not for slow changes over decades; use substantial or considerable.
Rapid, like a steep slope on a line graph.
The steep rise in rents after 2012 is the clearest feature of the graph.
Very large and sudden. Strong, so keep it for the biggest change.
The most dramatic change was in solar power, which rose from 1% to 18%.
Don't swap blindly: Using it for ordinary changes makes the report inaccurate.
Very noticeable, often of a trend or a difference.
The seasonal pattern is most pronounced in the coastal regions.
Fairly large. British spelling keeps the middle e.
A sizeable minority of respondents, about 30%, preferred to work from home.
Worth mentioning because it stands out.
One notable exception was Japan, where the figure fell.
Don't swap blindly: It means worth noting, not large. 'A notable exception' is natural; 'a notable increase' only works if the increase stands out from the rest.
Very large; informal emphasis.
There's been a huge change in how people shop in my city.
Don't swap blindly: Too informal for Academic Task 1; use considerable or dramatic.
Paraphrasing
Band tip: the public IELTS Writing band descriptors for Lexical Resource describe Band 7 as using “less common lexical items” with “some awareness of style and collocation”. A synonym that changes your meaning or breaks a collocation works against you, so choose the word that fits the sentence, not the rarest one you know.
In context
All four countries generated a larger share of their electricity from renewable sources in 2025, but the scale of change varied. The most dramatic rise was in Portugal, from 17% to 61%, while Poland saw a more modest but still noticeable increase of 9 percentage points. There was a marked contrast with Japan, where the share rose only slightly.
Considerable and substantial for size, sharp and steep for speed, marked and noticeable for how clearly the change shows. Choose the one that matches what you see on the chart.
Yes, it is correct and common. The problem is repeating it for every change. Use it once and vary with the words above.
Only if the change is not dramatic. Keep it for the largest or fastest change on the chart so that it stands out.
Slight, modest, marginal and minor. 'There was a slight decrease' and 'a modest rise' are natural in Task 1.
Practise
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