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CSS 2016 — Synonyms & Antonyms (Solved)

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Answer key: Synonyms 1-a · 2-b · 3-d · 4-d · 5-c · 6-a · 7-c · 8-a · 9-b · 10-c │ Antonyms 1-a · 2-b · 3-b · 4-d · 5-c · 6-b · 7-d · 8-b · 9-a · 10-c. 2016 was the first year of the 20-MCQ format. See the note on Sartorial.

(a) Synonyms — choose the word nearly most SIMILAR in meaning

1. NABOB

(a) Bigwig (b) Doubter (c) Frolic (d) Converse

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Answer: (a) Bigwig

  • Urdu: نواب، امیر کبیر، بااثر شخص
  • Meaning (n.): a person of conspicuous wealth or importance (from the Mughal title nawab)
  • Synonyms: bigwig, magnate, tycoon, grandee, mogul, VIP
  • Antonyms: pauper, commoner, nobody, beggar
  • Sentences:
    1. East India Company officers returned to England as rich nabobs.
    2. The nabobs of industry lobbied against the tax.

2. PALL

(a) Light (b) Satiate (c) Carry (d) Horror

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Answer: (b) Satiate

  • Urdu: بے مزہ ہو جانا، دل بھر جانا؛ (اسم) سیاہ چادر/دھند
  • Meaning (v.): to become less appealing through familiarity; to satiate. (n.) a dark cloud or a cloth over a coffin
  • Synonyms: satiate, cloy, jade, weary, lose its appeal, sicken
  • Antonyms: delight, stimulate, excite, refresh, please
  • Sentences:
    1. Even the finest biryani palls after a week of eating it every day.
    2. A pall of smog hung over Lahore.

3. SACROSANCT

(a) Prayer (b) Sanctuary (c) Pious (d) Sacred

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Answer: (d) Sacred

  • Urdu: مقدس، ناقابلِ خلاف ورزی
  • Meaning (adj.): regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with
  • Synonyms: sacred, inviolable, untouchable, hallowed, holy, protected
  • Antonyms: profane, unholy, open to change, violable
  • Sentences:
    1. For the party, the 18th Amendment is sacrosanct.
    2. Friday prayers were sacrosanct in his routine.
  • Why not the others: pious describes a person's devotion, not an inviolable thing.

4. LOUCHE

(a) Gauche (b) Fine (c) Brilliant (d) Indecent

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Answer: (d) Indecent

  • Urdu: بدنام، آوارہ، غیر شریفانہ
  • Meaning (adj.): disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way
  • Synonyms: disreputable, raffish, shady, seedy, indecent, dissolute
  • Antonyms: respectable, upright, decent, reputable, virtuous
  • Sentences:
    1. The novel is set in the louche nightclubs of 1920s Paris.
    2. He had a louche charm that worried her parents.
  • Trap: gauche = socially awkward, a sound-alike.

5. STENTORIAN

(a) Violent (b) Misbegotten (c) Loud (d) Stealthy

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Answer: (c) Loud

  • Urdu: بلند آواز، گرج دار
  • Meaning (adj.): (of a voice) loud and powerful. Named after Stentor, a Greek herald in the Iliad.
  • Synonyms: loud, booming, thunderous, resounding, powerful, strident
  • Antonyms: soft, quiet, faint, low, muted
  • Sentences:
    1. The drill sergeant's stentorian voice filled the parade ground.
    2. The muezzin's stentorian call echoed across the valley.

6. LOQUACIOUS

(a) Talkative (b) Thirsty (c) Beautiful (d) Complicated

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Answer: (a) Talkative

  • Urdu: باتونی، زیادہ بولنے والا
  • Meaning (adj.): tending to talk a great deal
  • Synonyms: talkative, garrulous, voluble, chatty, verbose, gossipy
  • Antonyms: taciturn, reticent, silent, reserved, quiet
  • Sentences:
    1. The loquacious passenger told me his life story before Lahore.
    2. She became loquacious when discussing politics.
  • 🔁 Asked in 2014, 2016 and 2024.

7. CHIMERA

(a) Chimney (b) Protest (c) Illusion (d) Panache

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Answer: (c) Illusion

  • Urdu: وہم، خیالِ خام، سراب
  • Meaning (n.): a thing hoped for that is illusory or impossible; (myth) a fire-breathing monster
  • Synonyms: illusion, fantasy, pipe dream, delusion, mirage, figment
  • Antonyms: reality, fact, certainty, actuality
  • Sentences:
    1. Full self-sufficiency in energy remains a chimera.
    2. Peace without justice is a chimera.

8. TEMERITY

(a) Audacity (b) Fearfulness (c) Shyness (d) Stupidity

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Answer: (a) Audacity

  • Urdu: بے باکی، گستاخی
  • Meaning (n.): excessive confidence or boldness
  • Synonyms: audacity, nerve, effrontery, impudence, gall, rashness
  • Antonyms: timidity, fearfulness, shyness, caution, humility
  • Sentences:
    1. The junior clerk had the temerity to correct the secretary in public.
    2. How can you have the temerity to lie to me?
  • Why not the others: fearfulness and shyness are antonyms.
  • 🔁 Asked as an antonym in 2023-S.

9. PROPINQUITY

(a) Habit (b) Nearness (c) Capacity (d) Tendency

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Answer: (b) Nearness

  • Urdu: قربت، نزدیکی
  • Meaning (n.): nearness in place, time or relationship
  • Synonyms: proximity, closeness, nearness, kinship, adjacency, affinity
  • Antonyms: distance, remoteness, separation, isolation
  • Sentences:
    1. Propinquity often turns classmates into lifelong friends.
    2. The propinquity of the two cities boosts trade.
  • Trap: "propensity" (tendency) sounds similar.
  • 🔁 Asked again in 2025.

10. VOCIFEROUS

(a) Numerous (b) Bountiful (c) Strident (d) Garrulous

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Answer: (c) Strident

  • Urdu: شور مچانے والا، پرزور، بلند آہنگ
  • Meaning (adj.): loud and insistent, especially in expressing opinions
  • Synonyms: strident, vehement, clamorous, outspoken, loud, insistent
  • Antonyms: quiet, silent, muted, restrained, subdued
  • Sentences:
    1. Farmers mounted a vociferous protest against wheat imports.
    2. Faizan was vociferous in his support of the proposal.
  • Why not the others: garrulous = talkative (chatty, not forceful).
  • 🔁 Asked as an antonym in 2017.

(b) Antonyms — choose the word nearly most OPPOSITE in meaning

1. GERMANE

(a) Irrelevant (b) Indifferent (c) Impartial (d) Improvident

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Answer: (a) Irrelevant

  • Urdu: متعلقہ، برمحل
  • Meaning (adj.): relevant to the subject under consideration
  • Synonyms: relevant, pertinent, apposite, applicable, related, apropos
  • Antonyms: irrelevant, extraneous, immaterial, unrelated, inapplicable
  • Sentences:
    1. Only germane facts should appear in a précis.
    2. His comments were not germane to the issue.
  • 🔁 Asked again in 2022, with identical options.

2. IRASCIBLE

(a) Determined (b) Placid (c) Reasonable (d) Pliant

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Answer: (b) Placid

  • Urdu: چڑچڑا، تند خو، غصیلا
  • Meaning (adj.): having or showing a tendency to be easily angered
  • Synonyms: irritable, short-tempered, testy, choleric, cantankerous, touchy
  • Antonyms: placid, calm, even-tempered, easy-going, serene
  • Sentences:
    1. The irascible old judge had no patience for delays.
    2. Hunger made him irascible.

3. APPROBATE

(a) Ingratitude (b) Condemn (c) Dissatisfaction (d) Master

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Answer: (b) Condemn

  • Urdu: منظوری دینا، پسند کرنا
  • Meaning (v.): to approve or sanction formally
  • Synonyms: approve, sanction, endorse, ratify, authorise, commend
  • Antonyms: condemn, disapprove, reject, censure, denounce
  • Sentences:
    1. Under the legal doctrine, a party cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time.
    2. The council approbated the new bylaws.
  • Why not the others: dissatisfaction is a noun; the verb opposite is condemn.

4. SUPERCILIOUS

(a) Unimportant (b) Relevant (c) Serious (d) Meek

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Answer: (d) Meek

  • Urdu: مغرور، متکبر، اپنے آپ کو برتر سمجھنے والا
  • Meaning (adj.): behaving as though one is superior to others
  • Synonyms: arrogant, haughty, condescending, disdainful, snobbish, patronising
  • Antonyms: meek, humble, modest, unassuming, self-effacing
  • Sentences:
    1. The supercilious officer barely looked up from his desk.
    2. She gave a supercilious smile at his mistake.

5. FATUOUS

(a) Crafty (b) Frugal (c) Sensible (d) Inane

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Answer: (c) Sensible

  • Urdu: احمقانہ، بے وقوفانہ، لغو
  • Meaning (adj.): silly and pointless
  • Synonyms: silly, inane, foolish, vacuous, idiotic, asinine
  • Antonyms: sensible, wise, intelligent, thoughtful, sound
  • Sentences:
    1. He made a fatuous remark about climate change being a hoax.
    2. The fatuous debate wasted an hour.
  • Why not the others: inane is a synonym.

6. QUIESCENT

(a) Lackadaisical (b) Active (c) Dull (d) Prescient

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Answer: (b) Active

  • Urdu: ساکن، خاموش، غیر فعال
  • Meaning (adj.): in a state of inactivity or dormancy
  • Synonyms: dormant, inactive, latent, still, inert, passive
  • Antonyms: active, dynamic, busy, lively, erupting
  • Sentences:
    1. The volcano has been quiescent for centuries.
    2. The militant group has been quiescent since the operation.
  • 🔁 Also asked in 2014.

7. SARTORIAL

(a) Cheerful (b) Sincere (c) Inelegant (d) Homespun

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Best answer: (d) Homespun. Some keys print (a) Cheerful, but that has no logical connection to the word.

  • Urdu: درزی گری سے متعلق، لباس و وضع قطع کا
  • Meaning (adj.): relating to tailoring, clothes or style of dress
  • Synonyms: tailored, fashionable, dress-related, stylish (in dress), well-cut
  • Antonyms: homespun, plain, shabby, unstylish, rough-made
  • Sentences:
    1. The minister was known for his sartorial elegance.
    2. His sartorial choices drew comments on social media.
  • Reasoning: sartorial refers to tailored, fashioned clothing. Homespun (made at home, plain) is the nearest opposite; inelegant is second best.

8. MATUTINAL

(a) Paternal (b) Crepuscular (c) Maritime (d) Marsupial

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Answer: (b) Crepuscular

  • Urdu: صبح کا، صبح سویرے سے متعلق
  • Meaning (adj.): relating to or occurring in the morning
  • Synonyms: morning, early, dawn, auroral, early-rising
  • Antonyms: crepuscular (twilight or dusk), vespertine (evening), nocturnal
  • Sentences:
    1. His matutinal walk in the park is sacred to him.
    2. Some birds sing a matutinal chorus before sunrise.
  • Why not the others: crepuscular = relating to dusk, the opposite end of the day · marsupial = pouched animal.

9. IMPECUNIOUS

(a) Wealthy (b) Cautious (c) Hungry (d) Tardy

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Answer: (a) Wealthy

  • Urdu: مفلس، تنگدست، کنگال
  • Meaning (adj.): having little or no money
  • Synonyms: poor, penniless, indigent, needy, destitute, broke
  • Antonyms: wealthy, affluent, rich, prosperous, well-off
  • Sentences:
    1. The impecunious student worked nights to pay his fees.
    2. Many impecunious poets died unrecognised.

10. SAPIENT

(a) Hunched (b) Strong (c) Simple (d) Simian

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Answer: (c) Simple

  • Urdu: دانا، عقلمند، زیرک
  • Meaning (adj.): wise, or attempting to appear wise
  • Synonyms: wise, sagacious, learned, sage, erudite, discerning
  • Antonyms: simple (simple-minded), foolish, ignorant, unwise, dull
  • Sentences:
    1. The elders gave sapient advice to the young couple.
    2. Homo sapiens means "wise man".
  • Why not the others: simian = ape-like, a trap tied to "sapiens".

Source: 2016 paper with key (CSS Exam blog)