Business English word of the day
A useful business English word every day: the words you meet in emails, meetings, reviews and job talk. 8 words so far; a new work word comes about once a week.
A person or company that tries to win the same customers or prizes as you.
Our main competitor just lowered its prices.
She studies what her competitors are doing.
The words in the quiz
Work words quiz
10 questions on the 8 newest words
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Question 1 of 10Meaning
What does competitor mean?
Competitors want the same thing as you, such as the same customers or the same prize, so only one of you can win it.
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Question 2 of 10Situation
You paid for a taxi to a client meeting, and a week later the company gave you that money back. The company ___ you.
The company gave you back money that you spent for it, so it reimbursed you. Recruiting and promoting are about jobs, not about paying back costs.
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Question 3 of 10Gap
We send every customer a short survey because their ___ helps us improve the service.
A survey collects what customers think about the service, the good points and the bad ones, and those comments are feedback.
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Question 4 of 10Opposite
Which word is the opposite of thorough?
Thorough work is done with great care, while careless work is done quickly without enough attention. Careful, detailed and complete all mean something close to thorough.
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Question 5 of 10Correct use
Which sentence uses bottleneck correctly?
A bottleneck is a countable slow point, so you remove a bottleneck, not much bottleneck. It slows work down, so it does not make things faster and is nothing to celebrate.
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Question 6 of 10Meaning
What does postpone mean?
If you postpone something, it still happens, just later than the first plan, for example a meeting that moves from Monday to Friday.
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Question 7 of 10Situation
In your first week, the company shows you around, sets up your laptop and trains you on its systems. This is your…
Showing a new person around and teaching them the systems is onboarding. An appraisal looks back at work you have already done, and redundancy and promotion come much later.
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Question 8 of 10Gap
We have no plan yet, so let’s ___ as many solutions as we can and judge them afterwards.
You collect lots of possible solutions first and decide which are good later, and that is exactly what you do when you brainstorm.
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Question 9 of 10Correct use
Which sentence uses competitor correctly?
Competitor is a noun for the person or company you compete against. The event is a competition, the verb is compete and the adjective is competitive.
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Question 10 of 10Meaning
What does reimburse mean?
When you spend your own money on something for your company or for another person, they reimburse you by giving that money back.
Keys 1 to 4 pick an answer, Enter goes on.
0 of 10
right on the first try
All business English words so far
8 words, newest first. Each page has usage notes, common mistakes, its word family and five questions.
- competitorB2A person or company that tries to win the same customers or prizes as you.
- reimburseC1To pay someone back money that they spent for you.
- feedbackB2Comments about someone’s work or actions that tell them what was good and what could be better.
- thoroughB2Done carefully and completely, with attention to every detail.
- bottleneckC1A point in a process where work slows down because too much has to pass through one narrow place.
- postponeB2To move an event or a task to a later time than planned.
- onboardingC1The process of helping a new employee or customer get started, with introductions, training and information.
- brainstormB2To think of many ideas quickly, often in a group, before you decide which ones are good.
Business English vocabulary, one word a day
These are the words that B1 to C1 learners meet at work and often skip or get wrong: invoice, agenda, delegate, deadline, stakeholder, follow-up. Each word has a plain meaning, two real sentences, the mistake people usually make and five questions to test yourself.
Read the word, answer the five questions, then use it once in a real email or meeting this week. A word you have used yourself is much easier to keep.
Questions about business English words
What is the latest business English word of the day?
The latest word is competitor: A person or company that tries to win the same customers or prizes as you. A new word joins this topic about once a week, and this page lists all of them.
How many business English words are there?
There are 8 words so far, and a new one is added about once a week, when it is this topic’s turn for the word of the day. Each word has its own page with usage notes, common mistakes, its word family and five questions to test yourself.
How does the work words quiz work?
It asks ten questions about the latest work words: meanings, situations, gaps in sentences, similar words and correct use. A wrong answer can be tried again, and your score counts first tries.
What level are these words?
Most are B1 to C1 on the CEFR scale: past the basics, but not yet used with confidence by most learners. Each word shows its level.