Thought Collocation for IELTS: A List to Boost Your Score

Kasturika Samanta

8 min read

Updated On Sep 19, 2025

Explore lists of thought collocations for IELTS. Check out their meanings, real examples, and IELTS-focused exercises, and boost your lexical resource, improve fluency, and achieve a higher IELTS band score, especially in the writing and speaking modules.

Lists of Thought Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score
Notes
Thought Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises
Answer Keys for Practice Exercises Thought Collocations

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Collocations with ‘thought’ are vital for IELTS learners because they allow you to express ideas with greater accuracy and fluency. Instead of repeating simple words like ‘think’ or ‘idea’, you can use natural English thought collocations, such as ‘a train of thought’ or ‘the thought of failing’. These collocations frequently appear in IELTS Speaking and Writing tasks.

In this blog, we will explore Verb + Thought, The thought of…, Noun + Preposition + Thought, and Common Adjective Collocations, with meanings and exam-style examples, followed by exercises and answer keys to make them a part of your overall vocabulary.

Lists of Thought Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score

Thought collocations are perfect for discussing opinions, decision-making, and abstract ideas more naturally, making your answers sound fluent and idiomatic. In the following tables, you will find thought collocations for IELTS. Each table includes the meaning and sample sentences for each collocation associated with the word 'thought'.

Verb + Thought Collocations

Certain verbs naturally combine with ‘thought’ to describe the way we process, share, or experience ideas. These are highly useful in IELTS Speaking Part 2 (personal experiences) and IELTS opinion essays.

Verb + Thought	Meaning	Example Sentence
Express a thought	to clearly state an idea	Writers must learn how to express their thoughts in a structured way.
Gather one’s thoughts	to collect and organize ideas	Before the exam, I needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts.
Go out to (someone) in thought	to mentally sympathize with someone	My thoughts go out to people affected by natural disasters.
Have a thought	to think of something briefly	I suddenly had a thought about how technology could reduce traffic congestion.
Hear a thought	to listen to someone’s opinion	During the seminar, I heard a thought that challenged my perspective.
Occur as a thought	to suddenly come to mind	The idea of studying abroad first occurred as a thought when I was in high school.
Share thoughts	to express one’s ideas with others	In IELTS Speaking Part 3, you may be asked to share your thoughts on global issues.
Spare a thought	to think kindly about someone or something	We should spare a thought for the elderly who live alone.

The Thought of… Collocations

This structure expresses anticipation, fear, excitement, or reluctance. It is common in IELTS Speaking Part 2 when describing feelings and in Task 2 essays when reflecting on human behavior.

The thought of…	Meaning	Example Sentence
The thought of dying	fear or awareness of death	The thought of dying motivates some people to live life fully.
The thought of eating meat	considering eating meat (often moral/ethical context)	For vegetarians, the thought of eating meat can be unpleasant.
The thought of an examination	anxiety about tests	The thought of the IELTS examination can be stressful.
The thought of failure	idea of not succeeding	The thought of failure motivates many candidates to practice harder for IELTS.
The thought of going home	desire for comfort and familiarity	After months of travel, the thought of going home was comforting.
The thought of an injection	fear or anxiety about needles	The thought of an injection makes many children anxious.
The thought of meeting	anticipation of social interaction	The thought of meeting new people abroad excites me.

Noun + Preposition + Thought Collocations

These collocations are used to organize, classify, and explain ideas, which is particularly useful in IELTS Writing Task 2 essays.

Noun + Preposition + Thought	Meaning	Example Sentence
A great deal of thought	careful consideration	The government put a great deal of thought into environmental policy.
Depth of thought	seriousness and complexity of thinking	His essay showed depth of thought about climate change policies.
Freedom of thought	the right to hold opinions freely	Freedom of thought is a fundamental human right.
Line of thought	way of reasoning	The examiner appreciated her logical line of thought in her essay.
School of thought	a group with shared beliefs or theories	One school of thought argues that public transport should be free.
Train of thought	a connected sequence of ideas	I lost my train of thought during the IELTS Speaking test due to nervousness.
Unity of thought	agreement in opinion	There was unity of thought among students about the need for better education.

Common Adjective + Thought Collocations

Adjectives with ‘thought’ describe the nature, quality, or emotional effect of ideas. Mastering these will boost your lexical resource score in IELTS.

Adjective + Thought	Meaning	Example Sentence
Comforting thought	an idea that gives reassurance	It is a comforting thought that education can change lives.
Critical thought	careful analysis of issues	Universities encourage critical thought in academic writing.
Morbid thought	an unhealthy or disturbing idea	Some students have morbid thoughts about failure before exams.
Negative thought	a pessimistic or harmful idea	Overcoming negative thoughts is important for mental health.
Original thought	a creative or new idea	The professor valued students who expressed original thoughts.
Rational thought	logical and sensible thinking	Rational thought is essential when writing argumentative essays.
Second thought	a reconsideration or doubt	On second thought, I decided to choose a different topic for my essay.
Secret thought	a private idea not shared with others	She kept a secret thought about studying overseas.
Spontaneous thought	an idea that comes suddenly	A spontaneous thought helped him answer the cue card question effectively.

Notes

If you thought something was unimportant, you say:
- I didn’t give it a moment’s thought
Note these expressions with thought + verb:
- The thought occurred to me that he might…
- The thought suddenly struck me that…
- That thought had never crossed my mind.
To ask someone’s opinion, you can say:
- What are your thoughts on the matter, Alan?
- Any thoughts on what we should do?
If you don’t want to lose something or somebody:
- I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my dog.
Thought is also used to mean ‘caring’:
- He’s always in my thoughts.

Thought Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises

Below are a few exercises that you need to complete to help improve your understanding and ability to use thought collocations for the IELTS exam.

Exercise A: Use the correct form of these verbs.

have gather go out to

hear occur spare

Have you given the new proposal any thought yet? Were keen to _____________ your thoughts.
The President was taken aback by the question and took a minute to _____________ his thoughts.
_____________ a thought for all those who are homeless on a cold night like this.
I’ve just _____________ a thought! Why not have a party?
Our thoughts_____________ all those families who lost relatives in the disaster.
The thought just _____________ to me that it’s mum’s birthday tomorrow and we haven’t got her a card.

Exercise B: Use these words to complete the sentences.

injection eating meat dying

meeting examination going home

The very thought of my final _____________ fills me with dread!
As a vegetarian, just the thought of _____________ makes me feel sick.
We all became very excited at the thought of _____________ .
I was shocked at the thought of all those people _____________.
I was trembling with fear at the thought of the _____________.
She shuddered at the thought of _____________ the man who had attacked her.

Exercise C: Use the following expressions in the sentences.

great deal of thought freedom of thought school of thought train of thought

Sorry, where was I? I’ve lost my ________________ .
Some places still don’t encourage ________________ .
Shirley doesn’t devote a ________________ to her appearance.
One ________________ contends that modern man originated in Central Africa.

Exercise D: Use these adjectives in the sentences.

comforting morbid negative

original second secret

As soon as I got onto the plane, I began to have ________________ thoughts about leaving. Was I doing the right thing?
If you want to win, think positively. Try not to ________________ thoughts take over.
Many people use a diary to record their ________________ thoughts.
As I waited for the results of the tests, my mind was filled with _______________ thoughts of death.
It’s a_______________ thought that we’ll be sleeping in our own beds this time tomorrow night.
He doesn’t have an _______________ thought in his head. He just steals other people’s.

Answer Keys for Practice Exercises Thought Collocations

Ex A: 1. hear 2. gather 3. Spare 4. had 5.go out to 6. occurred

Ex B: 1. examination 2. eating meat 3. going home 4. dying 5. injection 6. meeting

Ex C:

train of thought
freedom of thought
great deal of thought
school of thought

Ex D: 1. second 2. negative 3. secret 4. morbid 5. comforting 6. original

To conclude, mastering thought collocations can give IELTS candidates a strong advantage in both speaking and writing. By practicing verb, noun, adjective, and ‘thought of’ collocations, you will sound more precise, fluent, and natural. In the exam, use them when discussing opinions, feelings, or reflections to impress examiners and achieve a higher band score.

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