compulsory · CSS study notes
Bucket 10 — Size, Quantity & Abundance
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Best for: Economics, Geography, Sociology. Learn the scarcity words (paucity, scant, trifling) against the plenty words (copious, plethora, profuse). 10 words (1 repeat).
1. ABYSS (n.)
- Urdu: گہرا گڑھا، اتھاہ گہرائی
- Meaning: a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm; a catastrophic situation
- Syn: chasm, gulf, void, pit · Ant: peak, summit, height
- ✍️ Use: Without IMF support, the economy would have slid into the abyss of default.
- 🧠 Hook: a (without) + byssos (bottom) → no bottom.
2. AGGREGATE (n./adj./v.)
- Urdu: مجموعہ، کل، یکجا کرنا
- Meaning: a whole formed by combining parts; to collect into a total
- Syn: total, sum, combined, collective · Ant: individual, separate, part, fraction
- ✍️ Use: Aggregate demand collapsed as interest rates reached 22 percent.
- 🧠 Hook: ad + grex (flock, as in gregarious) → gather the flock together.
3. COPIOUS (adj.)
- Urdu: وافر، بکثرت
- Meaning: abundant in supply or quantity
- Syn: abundant, plentiful, profuse, ample · Ant: scarce, meagre, scant, sparse
- ✍️ Use: Pakistan receives copious monsoon rain yet stores barely 30 days of water.
- 🧠 Hook: so much you can make copies; Latin copia = plenty ("cornucopia").
4. INORDINATE (adj.)
- Urdu: حد سے زیادہ، بے جا
- Meaning: unusually or disproportionately large
- Syn: excessive, disproportionate, undue, immoderate · Ant: moderate, reasonable, appropriate, modest
- ✍️ Use: Circular debt consumes an inordinate share of the federal budget.
- 🧠 Hook: in (not) + ordinate (ordered) → not within normal order.
5. PAUCITY (n.) 🔁
- Urdu: قلت، کمی، ناکافی مقدار
- Meaning: a very small or insufficient amount of something; a shortage or lack
- Syn: scarcity, dearth, shortage, insufficiency · Ant: abundance, plenty, plethora, surplus
- ✍️ Use: A paucity of reliable economic data makes evidence-based policymaking difficult in Pakistan.
- 🧠 Hook: pauc- means few (as in paucity) → too few resources to meet a need. Trap: paucity means shortage, not complete absence. Full entry → Bucket 4.
6. PLETHORA (n.)
- Urdu: بہتات، ضرورت سے زیادہ مقدار
- Meaning: an excess; a very large amount
- Syn: glut, surplus, abundance, profusion · Ant: dearth, paucity, scarcity, lack
- ✍️ Use: A plethora of overlapping regulatory bodies confuses investors.
- 🧠 Hook: ple = full (plenty, complete) → plenty-thora.
7. PRODIGIOUS (adj.)
- Urdu: غیر معمولی، حیرت انگیز حد تک بڑا
- Meaning: remarkably or impressively great in size or degree
- Syn: enormous, colossal, extraordinary, phenomenal · Ant: small, tiny, ordinary, insignificant
- ✍️ Use: Rebuilding after the floods demanded a prodigious national effort.
- 🧠 Hook: a prodigy has prodigious talent.
8. PROFUSE (adj.)
- Urdu: بے حد، کثیر، فراخدلی سے
- Meaning: exuberantly plentiful; given freely
- Syn: abundant, copious, lavish, plentiful · Ant: meagre, scant, sparse, stingy
- ✍️ Use: The minister offered profuse apologies but no resignation.
- 🧠 Hook: pro (forth) + fuse (pour) → pours forth.
9. SCANT (adj.)
- Urdu: ناکافی، بہت کم
- Meaning: barely sufficient or adequate
- Syn: meagre, scanty, insufficient, minimal · Ant: ample, abundant, sufficient, copious
- ✍️ Use: The report paid scant attention to the plight of daily-wage earners.
- 🧠 Hook: it can't be enough.
10. TRIFLING (adj.)
- Urdu: معمولی، حقیر، بے وقعت
- Meaning: unimportant or trivial
- Syn: trivial, petty, negligible, insignificant · Ant: important, significant, substantial, weighty
- ✍️ Use: A trifling tax on luxury imports will not close a deficit of this size.
- 🧠 Hook: a trifle is a small dessert, not a full meal.