One Word Substitution Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The statistical study of the human population is demography. Lexicography is the compiling of dictionaries, econometrics applies statistical methods to economic data, and silvology concerns forests, so none of them is the study of human populations. The word comes from the Greek for people and writing, which matches the study of the numbers and make-up of human populations.

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

The correct matching is a-II, b-IV, c-I, d-III.

• A polyglot is a person who speaks many languages (II).
• An aviary is a large enclosure for keeping birds (IV).
• Avarice is extreme greed for wealth (I).
• An elixir is a magical or medicinal potion (III).

The other options pair avarice or aviary wrongly; for example, option A gives aviary the meaning of a potion.

Answer: D

The correct matching is (a)-(ii), (b)-(iv), (c)-(i), (d)-(iii).

• A manuscript is a book or document written by hand (ii).
• Theism is belief in the existence of God, and a theist is one who believes (iv).
• Utopia is an imagined state of ideal perfection (i).
• A stoic is one who endures pain or pleasure without showing feeling (iii).

The first option has manuscript right but swaps the others, which is the trap.

Answer: B

The correct matching is (a)-(iii), (b)-(i), (c)-(iv), (d)-(ii).

• Anarchy is the absence of rule, law and order (iii).
• Ornithology is the study of birds (i).
• Congenital means present from birth, as in a congenital defect (iv).
• Hydrophobia is the fear of water, also an old name for rabies (ii).

The other options give 'ornithology' or 'congenital' a wrong meaning.

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.