Antonyms Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The antonym of DEROGATORY is complimentary.

Derogatory remarks are critical and belittling. Complimentary remarks express praise and admiration, the direct opposite.

Interesting and unnecessary say nothing about whether the remarks were critical or approving, and cheerful describes the speaker's mood rather than what the remarks said about the food.

The word comes from 'derogate', to take away from someone's worth or standing.

Answer: A

The antonym of REPUGNANT is pleasing.

Repugnant means extremely unpleasant or disgusting, causing strong dislike: pregnant women often find certain smells repugnant. The opposite is pleasing, agreeable to the senses.

Happy and loving describe a person's feelings, not the quality of a smell. Linking means connecting and is unrelated.

Since the sentence describes the smell itself, the antonym must also describe a smell, and only 'pleasing' does.

Answer: B

The antonym of ENTHUSIASM is indifference.

Enthusiasm is eager interest and excitement about something. Its opposite is indifference, a complete lack of interest or concern.

Fervour is a synonym, intense feeling. Hostility is active ill will, which is not the absence of interest but a different strong feeling. Amity means friendship, also unrelated to the opposite of eagerness.

A quick test for an antonym pair is to swap the word into the sentence: 'His indifference to social work' says the reverse of 'his enthusiasm for social work'.

Answer: A

The keyed antonym of DIVINE is earthly.

Divine means of or from God, heavenly. Its direct opposite is earthly, belonging to this earth and human life, as in the contrast between heavenly and earthly things.

Worldly is close but leans towards being concerned with material things or being sophisticated. Devilish is the opposite of saintly or good rather than of heavenly, and fleshy means plump, having much flesh. So 'earthly' is the best opposite of 'divine' in a phrase about a world.

Answer: C

The antonym of AFFINITY is antipathy.

Affinity is a natural liking for, or feeling of closeness with, someone. Antipathy is a deep-seated dislike, the opposite feeling.

Apathy and indifference mean a lack of feeling or interest, which is the absence of affinity rather than its opposite. Disunity describes a lack of agreement in a group, not a personal feeling towards others.

The prefixes help: affinity suggests nearness (Latin ad, to, and finis, border), while anti- in antipathy means against.

Answer: A

The keyed antonym of CONFIDENCE is doubt.

Here confidence is self-assurance: although he was short, he walked with the assurance of a tall man. The opposite of being sure of oneself is doubt, a feeling of uncertainty.

Distrust and mistrust are the opposites of confidence in the sense of trust in another person, which is not the meaning in this sentence. Entrust is a verb meaning to give someone responsibility for something, not an opposite at all.

Answer: B

The antonym of HESITATE is be certain.

To hesitate is to pause or hold back because one is unsure. The opposite is to act without doubt, to be certain about what one is doing.

Falter and delay are close in meaning to hesitate, so they are synonyms rather than antonyms. Serious is an adjective describing a manner or attitude and is not the opposite of hesitating.

Words with a similar meaning, like falter and delay, are common traps in antonym questions; the answer must express the opposite idea, here firm and sure action.

Answer: B

The opposite of obdurate is Soft.

Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course, hard-hearted and unyielding. The opposite quality is being soft: gentle and yielding.

Rigid, stubborn and hard are all close to synonyms of obdurate, which is why they are the traps; none of them is an opposite.

Obdurate comes from the Latin obdurare, to harden, which is why words of hardness and stubbornness are its synonyms and softness its opposite.

Answer: A

The word closest to the opposite of penchant is dislike.

A penchant is a strong liking or inclination for something: a penchant for writing satirical poems. Its plain opposite is a dislike.

Bias is a leaning, close in meaning to penchant rather than opposite. Repulsion and hatred are far stronger feelings than the mild opposite of a liking, so 'dislike' is the closest match.

Answer: B

The word most opposite to ken is Ignorance.

Ken means the range of one's knowledge or understanding, as in 'beyond my ken'. Its opposite is a lack of knowledge, which is ignorance.

Knowledge, perception and awareness are all close to ken in meaning, so none of them is its opposite.