SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS
Category : 6th Class
Synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example shut is a synonym of close. A person or thing so closely associated with a particular quality or idea that the mention of their name calls it to mind.
Romantic poet is a synonym of William Wods worth or John Keats. Antonym is a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad and good). This section tests widely and exhaustively one's knowledge of the language and word power, but goes beyond that to test your ability to remember words with similar meanings or opposite meanings. Or, alternately, to discover the similarity or proximity between the meaning of the given word with one of those in the options. These exercises can get confusing sometimes because more than one option may appear as the right answer or none of them may look like the right answer. For such questions a student may consider the following strategies.
Type 1: Choosing the correct synonym of the given word In this type of questions, generally a word is given, follow by four or five alternatives. The candidate is required to choose the word which is nearest in meaning to the given word.
Example 1: Choose the correct synonym of the given word:
IMPLICATE
(a) Include
(b) Entreat
(c) Suggest
(d) Imply
Solution:
The word 'Implicate' my be used in sentence as:
The man implicated him flasely in the case.
Clearly, the word means 'involve' or 'include'.
Hence, the answer is (a).
Example 2: Choose the word which best expresses the meaning of the given word:
DILIGENT
(a) Intelligent
(b) Difficult
(c) Laborious
(d) Quick
Solution: 'Diligent' means 'hard-working' So, another word for it could be 'Laborious'. Hence the answer is (c).
What are Antonyms?
A word which is opposite in meaning to the given word is called its Antonym. The word 'Autonomy? means 'Independence.' So, its antonym would be 'Dependence.'
Type 2: Choosing the Correct Antonym of the given word
In this type of questions, generally a word is given, followed by four or five alternatives. The candidate is required to choose the word which is nearest to the opposite in meaning of the given word.
Example 3: Choose the correct antonym of the given word:
OBSCURE
(a) Pedantic
(b) Implicti
(c) Explicit
(d) Obnoxious
Solution: 'Obscure? means ?secret?. So, the antonym would be 'Explict.' Hence, the answer is (c).
STRATEGY 1 If you do not know the meaning of the given word, think of a context in which you might have used it, that may help you to figure out the meaning, for example, in the question find the word nearest in meaning to
MAGNIFY
(a) Forgive
(b) diminish
(c) swell
(d) extract Now if you do not know what magnify means think of a magnifying glass and what it does. It expands or makes a thing look bigger. So the right answer will be (c).
STRATEGY 2 If you cannot find a correct antonym in the given option think of the antonyms you know of and subsequently check if there is any word in the given options which is synonymous to the antonyms in your mind. For example
INDUSTRIOUS
(a) stupid
(b) harsh
(c) indolent
(d) complex If you don't know any of the words given as options think of antonyms you could think of, like lazy, idle. Now think of synonyms of lazy and you will know indolent is a synonym of lazy. So it will be the antonym to industrious. Formula -> SYNONYM of ANTONYM is another ANTONYM.
STRATEGY 3 Look at the part of speech of the given verb. A word may exist in various parts of speech. For example precipitate exists as a verb which means send rapidly into a certain state and also as a noun, precipitate, which means a substance deposited from a solution.
POLISH
(a) ruthlessness
(b) honesty
(c) indolence
(d) gaucheness Now is this the verb polish or noun polish. Since all options are nouns, this cannot be the verb polish related to shoes but noun polish which means culture and sophistication and the antonym to this would be gaucheness.
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