Verbal Ability - Synonyms and Antonyms

Synonyms are words that are the most similar in meaning to a given word. Antonyms, on the other hand, are words that are completely opposite to the word given.

Synonyms and antonyms are divided into two groups −

• Absolute − Interpretation of words remain constant in any application. For example — death, life, etc.

• Relative − Interpretation of the words changes as per the sentence. For example — common, like, etc.

The trick to identifying the relative synonyms or antonyms is to understand the sentence and guess the application of the word.

For Example

The word “common” has multiple meanings, like “same, shared, easily found, frequent, available”, etc. However, the meanings will keep changing as per its application in the following sentences −

• Rajiv is a common friend of ours.
• This is a common question.
• This plant is very common in this area.
• We have a common dining hall.

The major issues that people face with synonym and antonym is that they fail to understand the context in which a word has been used in a sentence. To handle this issue, the questions in this set have been designed in such a way, that of the four options given, only one is a synonym, whereas the rest three will be antonyms.

The reader should not only observe the synonyms but the antonyms as well, so that he can prepare accordingly on both the counts.