One Word Substitution Questions and Answers

Answer: B

A mint is an industrial facility that manufactures coins used as currency. A kiln is an oven for firing materials such as clay or bricks, a treasury stores and manages a government's funds, and a bank takes deposits and lends money. None of these three manufactures coins, so mint is the right word. The word 'mint' also stands for the place where coins are made as well as for the act of making them, which is the sense the sentence needs.

Answer: A

A rewording is a paraphrase.

To paraphrase is to express the meaning of something written or spoken in different words, typically to clarify or simplify it.

The distractors share only the prefix. A paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory but may be true. A paradigm is a model or typical pattern. Paraffin is a waxy or liquid hydrocarbon used as fuel.

Answer: B

A mendicant is one who goes from place to place begging alms.

The word comes from the Latin mendicare, to beg. It is used especially of religious ascetics and members of the mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, who lived on alms rather than owning property.

The other options describe unrelated things. A person who is overscrupulous is a pedant or a perfectionist, not a beggar. Metal work is a craft, and the word has nothing to do with it. The medical laboratory option plays on the sound of medic, which comes from a different root.

Answer: D

It is a tandem.

A tandem is a bicycle for two or more riders one behind another. The word is Latin for at length, applied jokingly to horses harnessed in single file.

Answer: D

It is a wreath.

A wreath is a ring of flowers and leaves. To wreathe is the verb, to writhe is to twist in pain and wrath is anger - four words close in sound and quite distinct.

Answer: D

It is incorrigible.

Incorrigible means beyond correction, from the Latin corrigere, to correct. Illegible means unreadable, indelible means impossible to erase, and unintelligible means impossible to understand.

Answer: B

It is a sojourn.

A sojourn is a temporary stay, from the Old French for spending the day. A halt is a stop on a journey, and an interlude and an intermission are breaks in a performance.

Answer: C

It is a cosmopolitan.

A cosmopolitan is a citizen of the world, from the Greek kosmos and polites. A patriot and a nationalist are attached to one country; metropolitan means belonging to a large city.

Answer: A

It is a criterion.

A criterion is a standard by which something is judged, from the Greek krites, a judge. Its plural is criteria. A postulate is something assumed for the sake of argument.

Answer: D

It is an exhortation.

An exhortation urges its hearers to act, from the Latin hortari, to encourage. A rodomontade is empty boasting and an ingrate is an ungrateful person.