Your Sizzling Guide to Summer Vocabulary

Whether you’re spending the warmer months in nature, along the coast or in a buzzing city, there are a couple of summer vocabulary words you will most certainly need to help bolster up your English conversations.

This is the time when the weather outside is lovely, it’s bright, you can hear the birds chirping and the trees gently rustling in the wind. Here are the words you'll be hearing and using more often.

Summer Vocabulary 

Barbeque

Barbequing is a style of cooking food, where the food is grilled over a coal fire. It’s quite a social way of cooking and eating and frequently used in the summer when the afternoons and evenings are lazy and long. Perhaps in the warmer months you might hold a barbeque (BBQ) outside in the garden or communal park.

Flip flops

Open shoes that can be worn by both men and women featuring a Y shape that goes between your first and second toe. Flip flops are casual and perfect for hot days as it allows your feet to breathe.

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Flowers

Some flowers bloom in early spring like daffodils and tulips. However, most flowers come to life during the summer. You will see pops of colour all over cities and towns.

Hat

You can wear hats in all seasons, but the purpose and material will differ. You might wear a suede hat or fluffy beanie during autumn or winter. However, in summer hats are worn to protect your face and eyes from the bright sun and would be made from a breathable material like cotton or straw.

Heatwave

A heatwave is an exceptionally hot period, even hotter than what is expected. It can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. On the opposite end, a cold front is what you might experience in winter.

Holiday / vacation

It’s the time when schools and universities break up and many people use this opportunity to go away for part of their summer holiday or vacation. So, you could ask your friends where they are planning to spend their holiday or vacation that summer.

Humid

When you describe the weather as humid it means there is water vapour in the air that makes it feel quite sticky. This is opposite to a dry heat. Humid weather feels much hotter. You might hear people describe humid weather as sticky, muggy or steamy.

Picnic

To picnic means to head to a park, bring snacks and a blanket, and lounge around enjoying the weather. In some of the bigger cities where many people don’t have their own backyards or gardens, the local parks are buzzing with groups of friends and families all making the most of the outdoor weather.

Popsicle / ice lolly

A popsicle is how people in the USA might describe a frozen flavoured ice block attached to a stick. In the UK you will hear people refer to it as a lollipop. It usually describes the fruitier varieties and are a great thirst quencher in the summer months.

Sun-kissed

You would use this term to describe how someone looks. If they’ve got a sun-kissed look it means they’ve been spending time in the sunshine and have a warm golden glow.

Here are some other ways of describing a really hot day:

What are your summer plans? Why not build your language skills and have an adventure. We have schools in 6 countries all over the English-speaking world.