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CSS 2025 — Synonyms & Antonyms (Solved)

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Answer key: Synonyms 1-A · 2-B · 3-B · 4-A · 5-D · 6-B · 7-A · 8-D · 9-A · 10-B │ Antonyms 11-C · 12-A · 13-B · 14-D · 15-A · 16-A · 17-B · 18-A · 19-C · 20-D. 2025 was the most obscure paper so far. Several words (frabjous, cromulent) are coinages from literature and TV.

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

1. FRABJOUS

(A) Wonderful (B) Surprising (C) Blithe (D) Gusto

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Answer: (A) Wonderful

  • Urdu: شاندار، نہایت خوشگوار، پرمسرت
  • Meaning (adj.): delightful, joyous. Lewis Carroll coined it by blending "fabulous" and "joyous".
  • Synonyms: wonderful, splendid, marvellous, delightful, fabulous, glorious
  • Antonyms: dreadful, dismal, miserable, awful, gloomy
  • Sentences:
    1. Clearing the written exam would make it a frabjous day for the whole family.
    2. "O frabjous day!" cried the children when school closed for summer.
  • Why not the others: blithe = carefree (close but not the same) · gusto = enthusiasm (a noun) · surprising is unrelated.

2. ACCUBATION

(A) Conversation (B) Reclining (C) Ambulation (D) Occupation

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Answer: (B) Reclining

  • Urdu: ٹیک لگا کر لیٹنا (خصوصاً کھانے کے وقت)
  • Meaning (n.): the act of reclining, especially at meals as the Romans did (Latin accubare, to lie down)
  • Synonyms: reclining, recumbency, lounging, lying down, leaning back
  • Antonyms: standing, uprightness, sitting erect, rising
  • Sentences:
    1. Roman banquets were marked by accubation on couches around the table.
    2. The painting shows nobles in accubation at a feast.
  • Why not the others: ambulation = walking · conversation and occupation are unrelated.

3. LEVITATE

(A) Sink (B) Float (C) Plod (D) Wander

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Answer: (B) Float

  • Urdu: ہوا میں معلق ہونا، اُٹھنا، تیرنا
  • Meaning (v.): to rise and hover in the air, often seemingly by magic
  • Synonyms: float, hover, rise, drift, soar, hang
  • Antonyms: sink, descend, fall, plummet, drop
  • Sentences:
    1. The magician appeared to levitate a metre above the stage.
    2. In the dream, she levitated above the rooftops.
  • Why not the others: sink is the antonym (some websites wrongly key it as the answer) · plod = walk heavily · wander = roam.
  • 🔁 Also asked in 2017.

4. SIBYLLINE

(A) Enigmatic (B) Obvious (C) Transparent (D) Subtle

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Answer: (A) Enigmatic

  • Urdu: پراسرار، پیشگوئی جیسا، مبہم
  • Meaning (adj.): prophetic and mysterious (from the Sibyls, oracles of ancient Greece)
  • Synonyms: enigmatic, cryptic, oracular, prophetic, mysterious, obscure
  • Antonyms: plain, explicit, obvious, clear, transparent
  • Sentences:
    1. The spokesman gave a sibylline answer that satisfied no one.
    2. Her sibylline warnings about the crisis later proved true.
  • Why not the others: obvious and transparent are antonyms · subtle = delicate, not mysterious.

5. MACADAMIZED

(A) Graveled (B) Mudded (C) Turfed (D) Paved

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Answer: (D) Paved

  • Urdu: پختہ (سڑک)، روڑی کوٹ کر بنائی گئی سڑک
  • Meaning (adj.): (of a road) surfaced with compacted layers of broken stone, a method named after John McAdam
  • Synonyms: paved, metalled, surfaced, tarred, asphalted
  • Antonyms: unpaved, dirt (kacha), unmetalled, muddy, rough
  • Sentences:
    1. The village finally got a macadamized road to the district headquarters.
    2. British engineers macadamized the Grand Trunk Road in parts.
  • Why not the others: graveled is close but loose; macadam is a finished surface · mudded and turfed are wrong.

6. FINAGLE

(A) Surrender (B) Manipulate (C) Cooperate (D) Wheedle

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Answer: (B) Manipulate

  • Urdu: چالاکی سے حاصل کرنا، ہیرا پھیری کرنا
  • Meaning (v.): to obtain something by devious or dishonest means
  • Synonyms: manipulate, wangle, swindle, scheme, trick, fiddle
  • Antonyms: play fair, deal honestly, be straightforward, surrender
  • Sentences:
    1. He finagled a front-row seat by claiming to be press.
    2. The contractor finagled the accounts to hide the losses.
  • Why not the others: wheedle = coax with flattery (close, but without the trickery) · surrender and cooperate are opposites.

7. DESIDERIUM

(A) Craving (B) Satisfaction (C) Fulfillment (D) Contentment

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Answer: (A) Craving

  • Urdu: شدید آرزو، کسی کھوئی ہوئی چیز کی تڑپ
  • Meaning (n.): an ardent longing, especially for something once had and now lost
  • Synonyms: craving, yearning, longing, pining, hankering, nostalgia
  • Antonyms: contentment, satisfaction, fulfilment, indifference
  • Sentences:
    1. Years abroad left him with a deep desiderium for his village.
    2. Her poems express a desiderium for lost childhood.
  • Why not the others: the other three are all antonyms (satisfied states).

8. AMANUENSIS

(A) Secretary (B) Assistant (C) Clerk (D) Scribe

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Answer: (D) Scribe

  • Urdu: کاتب، منشی، املا لکھنے والا
  • Meaning (n.): a person who writes from dictation or copies manuscripts
  • Synonyms: scribe, copyist, secretary, transcriber, clerk, stenographer
  • Antonyms: author, dictator (one who dictates), originator
  • Sentences:
    1. The blind poet dictated his verses to an amanuensis.
    2. Mughal emperors kept an amanuensis to record royal orders.
  • Note: "secretary" is also a dictionary synonym. Keys choose scribe as the closer fit.

9. CROMULENT

(A) Acceptable (B) Unacceptable (C) Questionable (D) Dubious

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Answer: (A) Acceptable

  • Urdu: قابلِ قبول، درست
  • Meaning (adj., humorous): acceptable or legitimate. The word was coined in The Simpsons.
  • Synonyms: acceptable, valid, legitimate, fine, adequate, proper
  • Antonyms: unacceptable, invalid, dubious, improper, questionable
  • Sentences:
    1. It's a perfectly cromulent argument, if a little thin on evidence.
    2. The editor decided the new word was cromulent enough to print.

10. PROPINQUITY

(A) Distance (B) Closeness (C) Remoteness (D) Isolation

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Answer: (B) Closeness

  • Urdu: قربت، نزدیکی، رشتہ داری
  • Meaning (n.): nearness in place, time or relationship
  • Synonyms: closeness, proximity, nearness, kinship, adjacency, affinity
  • Antonyms: distance, remoteness, isolation, separation, farness
  • Sentences:
    1. The propinquity of the two campuses encourages joint research.
    2. Propinquity often turns neighbours into friends.
  • 🔁 Also asked in 2016.

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

11. PERSPICACITY

(A) Acumen (B) Astuteness (C) Naivety (D) Intelligence

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Answer: (C) Naivety

  • Urdu: دور اندیشی، باریک بینی، فراست
  • Meaning (n.): keen mental perception and understanding
  • Synonyms: acumen, astuteness, discernment, insight, shrewdness, sagacity
  • Antonyms: naivety, obtuseness, dullness, stupidity, ignorance
  • Sentences:
    1. Her perspicacity in reading the market saved the company.
    2. The detective solved the case with remarkable perspicacity.
  • Why not the others: acumen, astuteness and intelligence are all synonyms.

12. CONFABULATION

(A) Verification (B) Fabrication (C) Distortion (D) Exaggeration

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Answer: (A) Verification

  • Urdu: من گھڑت یادداشت، گپ شپ
  • Meaning (n.): (psychology) fabricating false memories without intending to deceive; also informal chat
  • Synonyms: fabrication, invention, distortion, chat, conversation, fantasy
  • Antonyms: verification, accuracy, truth, fact, confirmation
  • Sentences:
    1. The witness's account turned out to be confabulation, not memory.
    2. After dinner the elders settled into a long confabulation.
  • Why not the others: fabrication, distortion and exaggeration all describe falsehood, so they are synonyms.

13. DILETTANTE

(A) Amateur (B) Connoisseur (C) Novice (D) Enthusiast

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Answer: (B) Connoisseur

  • Urdu: سطحی شوقین، اناڑی، نیم حکیم
  • Meaning (n.): a person who dabbles in a subject without real commitment or deep knowledge
  • Synonyms: dabbler, amateur, trifler, dilettante, layman, tyro
  • Antonyms: connoisseur, expert, professional, specialist, authority
  • Sentences:
    1. He was a dilettante in politics, never staying with one cause for long.
    2. Critics dismissed the collector as a mere dilettante.
  • Note: the paper misspelled it as "DILENTTANTE".

14. KILTER

(A) Balance (B) Order (C) Harmony (D) Out-of-sync

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Answer: (D) Out-of-sync

  • Urdu: توازن، درست حالت (out of kilter = بگڑا ہوا)
  • Meaning (n.): good working order or balance, usually in "out of kilter"
  • Synonyms: balance, order, alignment, harmony, condition, shape
  • Antonyms: imbalance, disorder, out of sync, disarray, malfunction
  • Sentences:
    1. The oil shock threw the whole budget out of kilter.
    2. His sleep cycle has been out of kilter since the night shifts.

15. RHUBARB

(A) Serenity (B) Cacophony (C) Harmony (D) Sweetness

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Answer: (A) Serenity

  • Urdu: شور شرابا، جھگڑا، بک بک (اور ایک پودا)
  • Meaning (n., informal): a noisy argument or row; also nonsense talk (and a plant)
  • Synonyms: row, squabble, commotion, uproar, hubbub, nonsense
  • Antonyms: serenity, calm, harmony, peace, tranquillity
  • Sentences:
    1. A rhubarb broke out between the two teams after the final whistle.
    2. The meeting descended into rhubarb and shouting.
  • Note: harmony is also defensible; keys pick serenity as the stronger opposite.

16. CORUSCATING

(A) Mundane (B) Tenebrous (C) Sparkling (D) Brilliant

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Answer: (A) Mundane

  • Urdu: چمکتا دمکتا، شاندار (ذہانت)
  • Meaning (adj.): flashing, sparkling; (of wit) brilliantly clever
  • Synonyms: sparkling, dazzling, brilliant, scintillating, glittering, flashing
  • Antonyms: mundane, dull, lacklustre, boring, dim
  • Sentences:
    1. The debate was lit up by her coruscating wit.
    2. Coruscating fireworks lit the sky on Independence Day.
  • Why not the others: tenebrous (dark) opposes the literal sense; the figurative sense (wit) is the one tested, so mundane is the answer · sparkling and brilliant are synonyms.

17. VELLEITY

(A) Aversion (B) Passion (C) Indifference (D) Apathy

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Answer: (B) Passion

  • Urdu: کمزور خواہش، ادھوری آرزو
  • Meaning (n.): a mere wish, too weak to lead to any action
  • Synonyms: whim, faint desire, inclination, wish, fancy, half-hearted wish
  • Antonyms: passion, resolve, determination, zeal, strong will
  • Sentences:
    1. His plan to learn French never went beyond velleity.
    2. Reform in the department remained a velleity, never a policy.

18. BAROQUE

(A) Minimalist (B) Ornate (C) Classical (D) Rococo

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Answer: (A) Minimalist

  • Urdu: پرتکلف، بے حد آراستہ
  • Meaning (adj.): highly ornate and extravagant in style
  • Synonyms: ornate, elaborate, florid, flamboyant, extravagant, rococo
  • Antonyms: minimalist, plain, simple, austere, unadorned
  • Sentences:
    1. The report was written in baroque prose that buried its main point.
    2. Baroque churches in Rome are full of gilded carvings.
  • Why not the others: ornate and rococo are synonyms.

19. CAVEAT

(A) Guarantee (B) Warning (C) Assurance (D) Disclaimer

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Answer: (C) Assurance

  • Urdu: تنبیہ، انتباہ، شرط
  • Meaning (n.): a warning, or a condition attached to a statement
  • Synonyms: warning, proviso, qualification, caution, condition, disclaimer
  • Antonyms: assurance, guarantee, promise, certainty
  • Sentences:
    1. The IMF approved the loan with the caveat that subsidies be cut.
    2. The offer came with one caveat: payment in advance.
  • Note: guarantee is also defensible; keys choose assurance.

20. BLUSTER

(A) Bravado (B) Boast (C) Confidence (D) Meekness

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Answer: (D) Meekness

  • Urdu: شیخی، گرج برس، دھونس
  • Meaning (n./v.): loud, aggressive or boastful talk with little effect
  • Synonyms: bravado, bombast, swagger, bragging, bullying, boasting
  • Antonyms: meekness, humility, modesty, reticence, gentleness
  • Sentences:
    1. Behind the bluster, the team had no real plan.
    2. He blustered about suing, but never did.

Source: CSPs Academy 2025 solved paper