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CSS 2022 — Synonyms & Antonyms (Solved)

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Answer key: Syn: Quell → Suppress · Wreak → Inflict · Pliant → Flexible · Dreck → Trash · Draconian → Harsh · Debenture → A long-term loan · Gritty → Sandy · Renascent → Rising again · Panache → Verve · Quarry → Prey │ Ant: Philistine → Intellectual · Germane → Irrelevant · Peaked → Ruddy · Droll → Serious · Gumption → Apathy · Recondite → Manifest · Protean → Unchanging · Asperity → Amenity · Flaunt → Hide · Wean → Addict

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

1. QUELL

(A) Tremble (B) Suppress (C) Alter (D) Hide

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Answer: (B) Suppress

  • Urdu: دبانا، کچلنا، فرو کرنا
  • Meaning (v.): to put an end to a rebellion or disorder, usually by force; to calm a fear
  • Synonyms: suppress, crush, subdue, quash, stamp out, allay
  • Antonyms: incite, provoke, stir up, foment, encourage
  • Sentences:
    1. Rangers were deployed to quell the riots.
    2. The doctor's words quelled her fears.

2. WREAK

(A) Smell (B) Soak (C) Twist (D) Inflict

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Answer: (D) Inflict

  • Urdu: برپا کرنا، ڈھانا (تباہی)
  • Meaning (v.): to cause a large amount of damage or harm
  • Synonyms: inflict, cause, unleash, bring about, create, wreck
  • Antonyms: prevent, avert, repair, restore, avoid
  • Sentences:
    1. The 2022 floods wreaked havoc across Sindh.
    2. Locusts wreaked destruction on the cotton crop.
  • Trap: "wreak" sounds like "reek" (smell), which is the trap option.

3. PLIANT

(A) Steady (B) Quick (C) Languid (D) Flexible

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Answer: (D) Flexible

  • Urdu: لچکدار، نرم، جلد اثر قبول کرنے والا
  • Meaning (adj.): easily bent; (of a person) easily influenced
  • Synonyms: flexible, supple, pliable, compliant, docile, malleable
  • Antonyms: rigid, stiff, obstinate, unyielding, inflexible
  • Sentences:
    1. The regime installed a pliant parliament.
    2. Willow branches are pliant enough to weave baskets.

4. DRECK

(A) Trash (B) Uneasiness (C) Decorated (D) Dull

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Answer: (A) Trash

  • Urdu: کچرا، ردی، بے کار چیز
  • Meaning (n., informal): rubbish; worthless material
  • Synonyms: trash, rubbish, junk, garbage, rot, drivel
  • Antonyms: treasure, gem, masterpiece, quality, classic
  • Sentences:
    1. Most of the TV dramas that season were dreck.
    2. The critic called the film overhyped dreck.

5. DRACONIAN

(A) Dreary (B) Catchy (C) Harsh (D) Jolly

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Answer: (C) Harsh

  • Urdu: نہایت سخت (قانون)، ظالمانہ
  • Meaning (adj.): (of laws or measures) excessively harsh and severe. Named after Draco, lawgiver of Athens.
  • Synonyms: harsh, severe, stringent, oppressive, drastic, repressive
  • Antonyms: lenient, mild, liberal, gentle, permissive
  • Sentences:
    1. Critics called the new cybercrime law draconian.
    2. Draconian austerity measures sparked protests.

6. DEBENTURE

(A) A penny share (B) A short-term bond (C) A common fund (D) A long-term loan

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Answer: (D) A long-term loan

  • Urdu: طویل المدتی قرض کا تمسک، بانڈ
  • Meaning (n.): a long-term security yielding fixed interest, issued by a company and backed by its credit or assets
  • Synonyms: bond, long-term debt instrument, security, loan certificate
  • Antonyms: equity, share, stock
  • Sentences:
    1. The company raised capital by issuing ten-year debentures.
    2. Debenture holders are paid before shareholders.
  • Trap: debentures are long-term, so "short-term bond" is wrong.

7. GRITTY

(A) Sandy (B) Silky (C) Bulky (D) Handy

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Answer: (A) Sandy

  • Urdu: ریتلا، کرکرا؛ (مجازاً) باہمت
  • Meaning (adj.): containing or covered with grit; also showing courage and resolve
  • Synonyms: sandy, gravelly, grainy, rough; (fig.) determined, plucky
  • Antonyms: smooth, silky, fine; (fig.) cowardly, feeble
  • Sentences:
    1. The dust storm left a gritty layer on the windows.
    2. It was a gritty innings under pressure.

8. RENASCENT

(A) Warming again (B) Rising again (C) Falling again (D) Resting again

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Answer: (B) Rising again

  • Urdu: دوبارہ ابھرتا ہوا، نئی زندگی پانے والا
  • Meaning (adj.): becoming active or popular again
  • Synonyms: reviving, resurgent, reborn, rejuvenated, resurrected, rising again
  • Antonyms: declining, dying, waning, fading, moribund
  • Sentences:
    1. A renascent interest in Sufi music is visible among the young.
    2. Renascent nationalism is reshaping Europe.

9. PANACHE

(A) Noise (B) Weakness (C) Verve (D) Nerve

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Answer: (C) Verve

  • Urdu: شان، طمطراق، بانکپن
  • Meaning (n.): flamboyant confidence of style or manner
  • Synonyms: flair, verve, style, dash, élan, flamboyance
  • Antonyms: dullness, timidity, awkwardness, lethargy, diffidence
  • Sentences:
    1. Babar Azam played the cover drive with panache.
    2. She hosted the ceremony with panache.
  • Trap: nerve = courage, not style.

10. QUARRY

(A) Wall (B) Hill (C) Bill (D) Prey

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Answer: (D) Prey

  • Urdu: شکار؛ پتھر کی کان
  • Meaning (n.): an animal or person being hunted; also a pit from which stone is extracted
  • Synonyms: prey, target, game, victim, kill; (pit) mine, pit
  • Antonyms: hunter, predator, pursuer
  • Sentences:
    1. The hawk circled, searching for its quarry.
    2. Marble from the Mardan quarry is exported abroad.

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

11. PHILISTINE

(A) Debutante (B) Novice (C) Intellectual (D) Pious

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Answer: (C) Intellectual

  • Urdu: بدذوق، فن و ادب سے بے بہرہ
  • Meaning (n./adj.): a person hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts
  • Synonyms: boor, barbarian, lowbrow, vulgarian, ignoramus, yahoo
  • Antonyms: intellectual, aesthete, connoisseur, cultured person, highbrow
  • Sentences:
    1. Only a philistine would demolish a Mughal-era building for a car park.
    2. He was a philistine who never read a book.

12. 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, apropos, related
  • Antonyms: irrelevant, extraneous, immaterial, unrelated, inapplicable
  • Sentences:
    1. Keep your answer germane to the question asked.
    2. His objection was not germane to the debate.
  • Note: the paper printed it as "GERMAN". 🔁 Also asked in 2016.

13. PEAKED

(A) Tired (B) Arrogant (C) Pointy (D) Ruddy

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Answer: (D) Ruddy

  • Urdu: پیلا زرد، بیمار سا، کمزور
  • Meaning (adj.): (informal, also "peaky") pale and sickly-looking
  • Synonyms: pale, sickly, wan, pallid, ashen, drawn
  • Antonyms: ruddy, rosy, healthy-looking, flushed, glowing
  • Sentences:
    1. After a week of fever he looked peaked and thin.
    2. You look a bit peaked; have you eaten today?
  • Trap: "pointy" plays on "peak" · tired is a near-synonym.

14. DROLL

(A) Forget (B) Charm (C) Serious (D) Absurd

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Answer: (C) Serious

  • Urdu: مزاحیہ، ظریفانہ، دلچسپ انداز میں عجیب
  • Meaning (adj.): curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement
  • Synonyms: witty, comic, amusing, whimsical, humorous, funny
  • Antonyms: serious, solemn, humourless, grave, sombre
  • Sentences:
    1. Mushtaq Yusufi's droll observations still make readers laugh.
    2. He has a droll sense of humour.

15. GUMPTION

(A) Seriousness (B) Apathy (C) Levity (D) Despair

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Answer: (B) Apathy

  • Urdu: ہمت، سوجھ بوجھ، حوصلہ مندی
  • Meaning (n.): shrewd, practical initiative and resourcefulness
  • Synonyms: initiative, resourcefulness, enterprise, nous, spirit, get-up-and-go
  • Antonyms: apathy, inertia, foolishness, passivity, timidity
  • Sentences:
    1. She had the gumption to start her own business at twenty.
    2. Nobody had the gumption to question the plan.

16. RECONDITE

(A) Manifest (B) Flexible (C) Provident (D) Sociable

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Answer: (A) Manifest

  • Urdu: دقیق، مبہم، کم معروف
  • Meaning (adj.): little known; abstruse
  • Synonyms: obscure, abstruse, arcane, esoteric, profound, deep
  • Antonyms: manifest, obvious, simple, plain, well-known
  • Sentences:
    1. The professor loved recondite references to medieval logic.
    2. The report was full of recondite legal terms.

17. PROTEAN

(A) Fickle (B) Unchanging (C) Elaborate (D) Selective

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Answer: (B) Unchanging

  • Urdu: بدلتی رہنے والی، ہمہ رنگ، متنوع
  • Meaning (adj.): able to change frequently or easily; versatile. Named after Proteus, the Greek sea god.
  • Synonyms: versatile, variable, ever-changing, mutable, adaptable, many-sided
  • Antonyms: unchanging, constant, fixed, static, invariable
  • Sentences:
    1. Terrorism is a protean threat that keeps changing form.
    2. He was a protean actor who played every kind of role.
  • Trap: fickle is close to a synonym.

18. ASPERITY

(A) Moistness (B) Amenity (C) Sour (D) Generosity

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Answer: (B) Amenity

  • Urdu: درشتی، تلخی، سختی (لہجے کی)
  • Meaning (n.): harshness of tone or manner
  • Synonyms: harshness, sharpness, acerbity, severity, roughness, acrimony
  • Antonyms: amenity (pleasantness), gentleness, mildness, kindness, civility
  • Sentences:
    1. The chairman replied with some asperity.
    2. The asperity of winter in Skardu is hard to bear.
  • Trap: "amenity" here means pleasantness of manner, not a facility.

19. FLAUNT

(A) Whip (B) Flatten (C) Show off (D) Hide

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Answer: (D) Hide

  • Urdu: نمائش کرنا، دکھاوا کرنا
  • Meaning (v.): to display something ostentatiously
  • Synonyms: show off, parade, flourish, display, brandish, exhibit
  • Antonyms: hide, conceal, disguise, cover, mask
  • Sentences:
    1. He flaunted his new car in front of the neighbours.
    2. Some politicians flaunt their wealth during elections.
  • Trap: don't confuse it with flout (to disregard a rule).

20. WEAN

(A) Flourish (B) Flush (C) Addict (D) Nourish

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Answer: (C) Addict

  • Urdu: دودھ چھڑانا؛ کسی عادت سے چھڑانا
  • Meaning (v.): to accustom a baby to food other than milk; to make someone give up a habit or dependence
  • Synonyms: break the habit, detach, withdraw, disengage, free
  • Antonyms: addict, hook, habituate, accustom
  • Sentences:
    1. The country must wean itself off imported fuel.
    2. Doctors helped wean him off painkillers.

Source: CSSPrepForum 2022 solution