📖 IT English Collocation Dictionary
97 verb collocations for software developers, organised A–Z. Natural word pairs that make your technical English sound fluent.
A
address
- address a bug ⭐
"We need to address this bug before the next release."
- address feedback ⭐
"I'll address the review feedback by tomorrow morning."
- address technical debt 📌
"Q3 is when we plan to address our technical debt systematically."
- address a bottleneck 📌
"The team met to address the bottleneck in the data pipeline."
assign
- assign a ticket ⭐
"Can you assign that Jira ticket to me?"
- assign a reviewer ⭐
"Please assign a reviewer before you submit the PR."
- assign permissions 📌
"The admin assigned read permissions to the new team member."
B
block
- block a merge ⭐
"The failing tests are blocking the merge."
- block a release 📌
"This is a release blocker — it blocks the entire release."
- be blocked on 💬
"I'm blocked on the auth ticket — waiting for the backend team."
build
- build a feature ⭐
"We'll build this feature in the next sprint."
- build a pipeline ⭐
"The DevOps team built a new CI pipeline from scratch."
- the build fails ⭐
"The build failed on the merge check — check the logs."
- build from scratch 📌
"We built the API from scratch to avoid legacy constraints."
C
close
- close a ticket ⭐
"You can close this ticket once QA signs off."
- close a PR ⭐
"The PR was closed without merging due to a change in direction."
- close out an action item 📌
"Let's close out all action items from last week's retro."
commit
- commit code ⭐
"Always commit code with meaningful, descriptive messages."
- commit changes ⭐
"I committed the changes to the feature branch."
- squash commits ⭐
"Squash your commits into one before merging into main."
D
debug
- debug an issue ⭐
"I spent two hours debugging this issue."
- debug locally 💬
"Can you reproduce it? I can't debug it in staging."
- debug a race condition 📌
"Race conditions are notoriously hard to debug."
deploy
- deploy to production ⭐
"We deploy to production every Friday after the smoke tests pass."
- deploy a service ⭐
"The pipeline deployed the new service in under 3 minutes."
- deploy to staging ⭐
"Always deploy to staging first for smoke testing."
- deploy a hotfix 📌
"We need to deploy a hotfix to restore the login flow."
E
escalate
- escalate an issue 📌
"Please escalate this to the team lead if it blocks you."
- escalate a bug 📌
"The support team escalated the bug to P0."
- escalate to management 📌
"This scope change needs to be escalated to management."
F
fix
- fix a bug ⭐
"Can you fix that bug before the end of the sprint?"
- fix a typo ⭐
"I noticed a typo in the README — I'll fix it now."
- fix a flaky test 💬
"Someone needs to fix this flaky test — it's breaking CI for everyone."
- quick fix 💬
"This is a quick fix — should take less than 30 minutes."
flag
- flag an issue ⭐
"I want to flag a potential performance issue before the review."
- flag a risk 📌
"The architect flagged a security risk in the design document."
- flag for review 📌
"I've flagged this ticket for legal review."
I
implement
- implement a feature ⭐
"The team implemented the feature ahead of schedule."
- implement a fix ⭐
"We implemented a fix for the memory leak identified in the audit."
- implement best practices 📌
"This refactor helps us implement security best practices."
M
merge
- merge a PR ⭐
"The PR is approved and ready to merge."
- merge into main ⭐
"Don't merge into main without two approvals."
- resolve a merge conflict ⭐
"The branch has conflicts — please resolve the merge conflict."
monitor
- monitor performance ⭐
"We monitor performance dashboards in real time after every deploy."
- monitor logs ⭐
"Keep monitoring the logs for anomalies after the deploy."
- monitor error rates 📌
"Set up an alert to monitor error rates after the rollout."
O
open
- open a PR ⭐
"Let's open a PR so we can start the review process."
- open a ticket ⭐
"Open a ticket for that bug so it gets tracked."
- open an issue ⭐
"You can open a GitHub issue to track this feature request."
P
patch
- patch a vulnerability ⭐
"The security team patched the vulnerability within 24 hours."
- apply a patch 📌
"Apply the patch and restart the service to take effect."
- patch a bug 💬
"We patched the bug but the root cause still needs investigation."
push
- push code ⭐
"I pushed the changes to the feature branch."
- push to production ⭐
"We push to production after all checks pass."
- push a hotfix 📌
"We had to push a hotfix at 2am to restore service."
- force push 💬
"Don't force push to main — you'll overwrite other people's work."
R
refactor
- refactor code ⭐
"This module needs to be refactored before we build on top of it."
- refactor a component ⭐
"The PR refactors the login component to use hooks."
- refactor for readability 📌
"We refactored the function for both readability and performance."
release
- release a version ⭐
"We released version 2.4 last Thursday."
- cut a release 💬
"Can you cut a release once the hotfix is merged?"
- write release notes ⭐
"Update the release notes before publishing to the App Store."
review
- review a PR ⭐
"Could you review my PR before the standup?"
- request a review ⭐
"I've requested a review from two senior engineers."
- conduct a code review 📌
"We conduct code reviews for all changes to the main branch."
- approve / request changes ⭐
"If you approve the PR, it's ready to merge."
revert
- revert a commit ⭐
"We had to revert the last commit — it broke staging."
- revert a change ⭐
"Revert this change and we'll investigate in a separate branch."
- roll back a deployment ⭐
"We rolled back the deployment after error rates spiked."
run
- run a test ⭐
"Run all tests locally before you push."
- run a pipeline ⭐
"The CI pipeline runs on every push to the branch."
- run a deployment 📌
"We run deployments after business hours to minimise impact."
- run a migration 📌
"Don't forget to run the database migration in staging first."
S
ship
- ship a feature ⭐
"We shipped the feature two weeks ahead of schedule."
- ship code 💬
"The goal is to ship code that users actually need."
- ship to production ⭐
"We're ready to ship to production."
spin up
- spin up a container ⭐
"The test environment spins up a new container automatically."
- spin up an environment ⭐
"I'll spin up a dev environment for you to test against."
- spin up a server ⭐
"We spin up additional server instances during traffic spikes."
T
test
- write a test ⭐
"Write a unit test for each new function you add."
- run tests ⭐
"Run the full test suite before submitting the PR."
- pass a test ⭐
"All tests are passing — we're good to merge."
- fail a test ⭐
"Two tests failed due to a timing issue in the async code."
trigger
- trigger a pipeline ⭐
"Pushing to main triggers the deployment pipeline automatically."
- trigger a build ⭐
"You can manually trigger a build from the CI dashboard."
- trigger a rollback 📌
"High error rates automatically triggered a rollback."
U
update
- update a dependency ⭐
"Update the dependency to patch the security vulnerability."
- update documentation ⭐
"Update the API docs to reflect the new parameters."
- update a ticket ⭐
"Update the ticket status as you make progress."
- roll out an update 📌
"We're rolling out a critical update to all regions tonight."
V
validate
- validate input 📌
"Always validate user input on the server side."
- validate a schema 📌
"The API validates the request body against the JSON schema."
- validate assumptions 📌
"Let's validate our assumptions before we start building."
W
write
- write code ⭐
"Spend time writing code that future you will understand."
- write documentation ⭐
"Please write documentation before closing the ticket."
- write a test ⭐
"Write a failing test first, then implement the feature."
- write a commit message ⭐
"Write a clear, imperative commit message that explains the why."