80+ transition words and phrases for essays — organized by function.
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Transition words, as the term implies, are words and phrases that connect ideas, helping readers understand how each sentence relates to the next one. These words function like the ligaments in your body that connect one bone structure to another. Like your ligaments, these connect words that form the context of the whole story.
To help you understand why transition words are important, let's try reading this block of text without them.
Exercise improves cardiovascular health. It raises your mood. It reduces stress hormones. People who have busy schedules find it hard to exercise regularly. Short sessions are the most effective. Ten minutes of brisk walking per day will produce measurable benefits.
Now read this block of text with the transition words added.
Exercise improves cardiovascular health and, moreover, raises your mood by releasing endorphins that reduce stress hormones. However, people who have busy schedules find it hard to exercise regularly. Fortunately, short sessions are the most effective; in fact, even ten minutes of brisk walking per day will produce measurable results.
The second version feels more connected and flows better. While individual sentences sound okay on their own, transitions connect them and clarify the relationships between them. "Moreover" is used to add another supporting point. "However" is used to introduce a counterargument. "Fortunately" introduces a solution. "In fact" adds even more force to a previously made point.
Transition words help the reader connect the dots between these sentences they'd otherwise have to figure out on their own without them. Therefore, if a sentence or paragraph is easy to understand on its own, adding transition words helps the reader understand the context of these ideas and how they relate to one another, rather than reading sentences in isolation.
Transition words fall into seven major categories or functions. They indicate seven types of relations between sentences, such as addition, contrast, cause and effect, sequence, emphasis, example, and conclusion. Using the right transition word to express the relation you want between sentences is the core of using transitions effectively.
Many types of writing do not rely as heavily on transition words; essays, however, are largely argumentative, and thus the reader must be able to follow the author from point to point. When used correctly, transition words can transform an essay into a guided tour of your argument, but without them, the same batch of sentences can seem like a haystack of random content, and the reader is left on their own to connect the dots.
There are very few instances where an introduction will need any transitions. Each new sentence will be a new idea, in a new sentence. The ideas in the sentence before do not need to be explained. You can begin a new sentence with 'first' or state 'this essay will argue' and then proceed to set out the topic without explaining how you arrived there. If you need something to get going, try a writing prompt.
Transitions are most often used in body paragraphs. The first sentence at the beginning of a paragraph accomplishes two things: it relates to the previously discussed material, and it introduces new material. You use transition words to explain how you are approaching the new information. If you are adding more information to a previously discussed point, you can use words and phrases such as furthermore, in addition, and moreover. If you are using contrasting ideas with previously discussed information, you can use words and phrases such as "however," "nevertheless," and "on the other hand." Finally, if the next phrase is a consequence of earlier text, you use words and phrases such as "therefore" and "as a result."
Compare this weak opener, "Another reason is important," with something more precise, "Nevertheless, the economic argument is complicated." The word "Nevertheless" tells the reader what to expect without telling them everything, which is the whole job of the transition word: to give a reader a teaser (or a roadmap) before telling them everything that happens next.
Conclusions have their own set of transition words: in conclusion, to summarize, ultimately. These signal to the reader that you're concluding the chapter or section and starting to form a judgment. Avoid using these words in the middle of the essay, or else they'll think you're wrapping up the story before it even ends.
Lastly, the best transition words are those that connect your ideas together rather than just linking together a series of separate statements. As you read through your essay, pay attention to how these words connect key points from previous paragraphs and set up the main point of the section. For example, "Given the evidence, the decision becomes clear" would be a good bridging opener to a new paragraph after a paragraph that argues that evidence proves that remote work reduces commute time. That paragraph would end with something like "For example, your last paragraph argues that remote work reduces commute time." The opening for the following paragraph would then read: "Those saved hours don't just benefit workers; they reshape how cities plan transit." The first half of that statement looks back to the previous point, and the second half sets up the new point. This kind of statement looks both backward and forward, facilitating smooth flow between paragraphs in place of a long list of separate statements.
Contrast transition words are perhaps the most critical set of words for any argumentative or persuasive form of writing. These words signal that the writer is about to present the opposing idea and then return to their own argument. How these words are sequenced is critical for this type of writing.
Most argument essays follow a concession-refutation pattern; that is, you first present the opposing view as a concession and then move on to present your own view as refutation. The transition word is the pivot between these two elements of your argument. Presenting the opposing view in adequate detail allows you to present the best features of your own view, for by presenting what is true in the opposing view you have dealt with it seriously.
Example of the concession-refutation move with contrast transitions:
All contrast words appear before the opposing view. The actual claim of the writer will always appear after the contrast word. Thus, words like while, even though, and although indicate that the opposing view will be presented next, whereas words like nevertheless, however, and still indicate that the writer's actual argument is to follow. "That said," "Then again," and "By comparison" are softer versions of the above words.
They will acknowledge the opposing view, but will not necessarily concede to it. This type of writing can be useful for academic papers, where the author analyzes different points of view rather than just being biased toward something. In most cases, sounding overconfident in one point of view can undermine credibility.
The most common issue students have with transition words is what composition teachers call "furthermore disease." This means every paragraph starts with "Furthermore," "Moreover," or "In addition," regardless of context or whether these words describe a logical relationship between paragraphs. Since they are being taught these words, they become mechanical fillers; they add them because they know transition words are expected, not because the text needs them.
There are several indicators of 'transition word filler'. One of them is whether or not the sentence would still be as good or even clearer without the transition word or phrase. For example: 'Furthermore, this is important' becomes 'This is important'. If a transition word fills little or no meaningful function in a given sentence, then delete it.
The third sign is that the transitions are often attached to sentences that do not have the relationships that the transitions describe. For example, writing "In conclusion, exercise is good for you" in the middle of an essay misleads readers who are expecting that the rest of the paragraph will back up that statement. Similarly, using the word "however" when one has not set up a contrast also misfires.
You can build connections into your sentence structure instead of relying on transitions. For example, "The battery drained quickly, so I switched to a new phone." or "The battery drained quickly, and I switched to a new phone as a result." Instead of relying on the same transition word over and over again in your writing, try to vary these patterns throughout so it doesn't sound repetitive.
A good test for whether or not you're relying too heavily on transitions is to read your own work aloud. If you find yourself repeating the same word over and over again within the space of five minutes, then try to swap it out with a different word or rework the sentence so that the connection between the two paragraphs is implicit. Good writing makes connections seem inevitable.
Transition words can present problems for many ESL students. In some languages, transition words are indicated through verb endings, in others through word order, and in English by means of special words such as however and because. These words create smooth transitions and help to make one's writing sound natural to native speakers of English when correctly used.
Pay attention to "register," or how formal a given word is. Many of these words come in formal and informal varieties. Thus, for example, 'Nevertheless' and 'still' can be used to signal contrast, but 'Nevertheless' is more appropriate for formal or academic writing (e.g., essays, business letters), whereas 'still' is more typical of spoken English and of informal writing (e.g., notes, newspaper articles).
Common formal/informal pairs to know:
A second challenge is that some English transitions have very specific logical constraints that don't translate directly. "Nevertheless" must be preceded by a statement that is contradicted or qualified by the subsequent one. "Therefore" must be preceded by a statement that has a causal or logical relationship with the subsequent one. If these relationships are not present, then the word "Therefore" will mislead English speakers who expect a conclusion based on previous statements. For more vocabulary, see ESL vocabulary by CEFR level.
To understand how to use these words in your own writing, read them in context, in essays, articles, and academic texts that clearly lay out the necessary relationships between the ideas. Then, go back and forth between this writing vocabulary tool, the categories for function, and your reading material, looking for the same words to understand how they are used in different situations. Additional writing vocabulary for use in essays and academic writing can be found here: Words to replace said, Big words to sound smart, Cool words.
Transitions are words used to connect sentences and/or paragraphs as well as to clarify the relationships between them. These words include words such as however, therefore, furthermore, and for example. The writer uses these words to make the reader aware of how the sentences and/or paragraphs relate to each other in terms of overall organization.
Furthermore, in addition, and moreover are used to add more supporting evidence to the previous paragraph. However, nevertheless, and on the other hand are used to contrast with the previous paragraph. Therefore, consequently, and as a result are used to describe a causal link with the previous paragraph. In conclusion, to summarize, and ultimately are used in an essay's final paragraph. The same rule applies here as to how you decide on the best word to use in a sentence to describe what you are actually doing in the paragraph.
To include opposing views before refuting them, use while and even though as subordinators to open a sentence with the concession to the opposing views. For a softer switch between points of view, use that said and then again to introduce a nuance that is still not contradictory to previous statements. To find all words to contrast between sentences, filter the tool above by "Contrast".
Likewise, there are a number of pitfalls to watch out for in the overuse of transitions. Using the same transition word over and over again in a piece creates the risk of disease-like spread and becomes a reflex rather than a choice (for example, 'furthermore disease'). In addition, don't use the wrong transition word for the job: 'therefore' when there is no conclusion reached, 'however' when there is no contrast. The structure of a piece is also affected by starting every paragraph with the same transition word, and so becomes a structural problem as well as a stylistic one.
When studying ways to conclude a text, as with the opening, we can use in conclusion, to summarize, in summary, ultimately, and overall. To use more sophisticated language than in conclusion, we can then use taken together, in the final analysis, or as the evidence suggests.
For general purposes of usage, one strong transition per paragraph is sufficient. In addition, there are many smaller connectors used within a paragraph to link sentences to each other. Thus, while there is no set limit on transitions, using too many transition words and starting every other sentence with them suggests you're building sentences one by one instead of building the entire paragraph. And that means you need to go back and reorganize the structure of that particular paragraph as well.