A Supply of Collocation for IELTS: A List to Boost Your Score

Prity Mallick

7 min read

Updated On Sep 25, 2025

Master the most useful ‘a supply of’ collocations for IELTS. This blog offers meaning and examples, and practice tasks, and aims to assist you in expanding your vocabulary and improving accuracy, ultimately helping you achieve a higher IELTS score.

Lists of ‘A Supply of’ Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score
A Supply of Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises
Answer Keys for Practice Exercises ‘A Supply of’ Collocations

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In IELTS Writing and Speaking, you often need to talk about resources, availability, and provision, whether it is a supply of energy, water, food, or labour. The phrase ‘a supply of’ is extremely versatile and appears in academic, social, and economic contexts. By mastering collocations with ‘a supply of’, you can make your language more precise, formal, and academic, helping you score higher in Lexical Resource on IELTS.

In this blog, we will explore a supply of collocations for IELTS, divided into key categories with meaning and examples.

Lists of ‘A Supply of’ Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score

Using a supply of collocations in the IELTS exam adds precision in essays and fluency in speaking, as they are natural for describing real-life situations, leading to a high lexical resource score.

Verb + Supply of

These collocations describe how people or institutions manage resources and are perfect for IELTS Writing Task 2 essays on environment, economics, or global issues.

Verb + Supply of	Meaning	Example Sentence
Control a supply of	manage or regulate availability	Multinational companies control a large supply of natural resources.
Exhaust a supply of	use up completely	The country has exhausted its supply of fossil fuels.
Have a supply of	possess or keep available	Every household should have a supply of emergency food and water.
Provide a supply of	make resources available	The NGO provided a supply of medicine to the flood-affected areas.
Maintain a supply of	keep resources steady	Governments must maintain a supply of vaccines for public safety.
Cut off a supply of	stop or interrupt resources	The strike cut off the supply of electricity to rural areas.
Ensure a supply of	guarantee resources are available	Policies should ensure a supply of clean drinking water for all citizens.

Adjective + Supply of

Adjective collocations describe the quality, reliability, or sufficiency of a supply. They make your IELTS writing more specific and academic.

Adjective + Supply of	Meaning	Example Sentence
Constant supply of	regular and uninterrupted	A constant supply of electricity is crucial for industries.
Free supply of	available without cost	Refugees were given a free supply of food and blankets.
Fresh supply of	recently obtained / new	The bakery receives a fresh supply of bread every morning.
Good supply of	adequate or sufficient	The city has a good supply of clean drinking water.
Inadequate supply of	insufficient / not enough	There is an inadequate supply of affordable housing.
Limited supply of	restricted / not much available	There was a limited supply of fuel after the transport strike.
Abundant supply of	plenty / more than enough	The region enjoys an abundant supply of natural resources.

“Good Supply of” Examples

This is a fixed expression often used with both serious and humorous contexts. It highlights adequacy or sufficiency of a resource, item, or even abstract concept.

Good Supply of + Noun	Meaning	Example Sentence
Good supply of bad jokes	a lot of (humorous usage)	My uncle always has a good supply of bad jokes at family gatherings.
Good supply of labour	plenty of workers available	The construction industry relies on a good supply of skilled labour.
Good supply of drink	enough beverages	The wedding had a good supply of food and drink.
Good supply of guns	plenty of weapons	The rebels had a good supply of guns and ammunition.
Good supply of money	enough financial resources	She started her business with a good supply of money from investors.
Good supply of oil	adequate reserves of petroleum	The Middle East has a good supply of oil for export.

Other Important Collocations with “A Supply of”

Apart from verbs and adjectives, ‘a supply of’ appears in many fixed academic expressions. These are useful for IELTS Writing Task 2 when discussing resources or scarcity.

Collocation	Meaning	Example Sentence
Secure a supply of	obtain resources safely	Countries try to secure a supply of energy through trade agreements.
Shortage in supply of	lack of availability	There was a shortage in the supply of skilled teachers in rural schools.
Disrupt the supply of	interrupt resource flow	The war disrupted the supply of food to the region.
Surplus supply of	more than required	There is a surplus supply of graduates in some job sectors.
A steady supply of	continuous flow	The factory requires a steady supply of raw materials.
Guarantee a supply of	make sure resources are available	International cooperation is needed to guarantee a supply of clean water.

A Supply of Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises

There are a few exercises given below that you will have to complete to assist you in improving your understanding and your ability to use ‘a supply of’ collocations for the IELTS test.

Exercise A: Use the correct form of these verbs.

control exhaust

have provide

The new government has promised to ____________ a reliable supply of clean water to all rural communities.
Make sure you ____________ an adequate supply of pens and pencils for the exam.
Within three weeks they had____________ their supply of food and clean drinking water. Their supply of fuel had also run out, so they had to abandon the expedition.
The police are desperate to arrest the big dealers who ____________ the supply of drugs to young people in the area.

Exercise B: Use the following adjectives in these sentences.

constant free

fresh good

inadequate limited

If you don’t want to miss a bargain, then hurry along to our stores today. We only have a____________ supply of these DVD players in stock.
The human body needs a ____________ supply of vitamin C every day, so make sure you eat fruit every day.
The human brain needs a ____________ supply of blood. Even a short disruption of the supply can cause serious problems.
There is an ____________ supply of skilled workers at the moment. => Yes, good people with the right qualifications are in short supply.
Many nuclear power stations are located on the coast so that they are near to a ____________ supply of water.
Family planning clinics provide a ____________ supply of contraceptives on request.

Exercise C: Complete the sentences with these words.

bad jokes labour

drink guns

money oil

No, I can’t pay for your holiday. I don’t have an endless supply of ____________ you know!
Saudi Arabia is self-sufficient in energy. It has an abundant supply of ____________.
There was an unlimited supply of ____________ at the party. No wonder so many people have hangovers this morning.
Many American companies build factories in the Far East where there is a plentiful supply of cheap ____________ .
He seems to have an never-ending supply of ____________ . I don’t think I laughed once and couldn’t wait to get away.
These people seem to have a limitless supply of ____________ and ammunition, but no food! I can’t understand it!

Answer Keys for Practice Exercises ‘A Supply of’ Collocations

Ex A: 1. provide 2. have 3. exhausted 4. control

Ex B: 1. limited 2.fresh 3. constant 4. inadequate 5. good 6. free

Ex C: 1. money 2. oil 3. drink 4. labour 5. bad jokes 6. guns

To conclude, a supply of collocations is powerful because it applies to resources, health, economy, and even humour. You will be able to write essays with academic precision, speak fluently in discussions, and understand IELTS texts better. If you want to achieve Band 7 or higher, start replacing basic phrases like ‘lots of food’ with advanced expressions like ‘a good supply of food’ or ‘an inadequate supply of housing’. These small changes can make a big difference in your overall IELTS band score.

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