Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2017 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, GRS-A-TNS); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part A. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Which one of the following is the antonym of the word written in capital letters in the sentence, “She was RELUCTANT to sell her car”?

(a)Anxious
(b)Happy
(c)Eager
(d)Unwilling

Answer

Why

Correct — C, (c) Eager.

‘Reluctant’ is from Latin reluctari, to struggle against — re-, ‘back’, on luctari, ‘to wrestle’ — and the picture inside the word is of someone pulling the other way. A reluctant person may end up doing the thing; what the word reports is the inward resistance. So the dimension being measured is willingness to act, and the antonym has to sit at the other end of that same line.

‘Eager’ sits there exactly. It comes through Old French aigre, ‘sharp’, from Latin acer, the root behind acute, acrid and acid — the same word that gives vinegar its name, vin aigre, sour wine. To be eager is to be sharp-set towards something, keen in the literal sense of the English word ‘keen’, which is also a word for a cutting edge. Where reluctance drags back, eagerness leans forward, and no other option on the page describes leaning forward at all.

The syntax confirms it. ‘Reluctant’ takes a to-infinitive — reluctant to sell, reluctant to sign, reluctant to admit — and ‘eager’ takes the identical frame: eager to sell, eager to sign, eager to admit. Read the printed sentence back with the option in place and only one word changes: ‘She was RELUCTANT to sell her car’ becomes ‘She was eager to sell her car’, the same statement with its sign reversed. An antonym that fits the tested word’s own grammatical frame without any other adjustment is as clean a reversal as an item of this kind can offer.

The warning carried over from Q4 applies here too, and more sharply: the ask is for the antonym, and the option ‘unwilling’ is a plain dictionary synonym of the tested word.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Anxious — The Commission’s key does not take this option, and the reason is worth setting out because the option is not simply wrong. ‘Anxious’ followed by a to-infinitive — anxious to please, anxious to settle the matter — is long established in English in a sense close to ‘keen’, and in that construction it does point away from reluctance. What it never loses is its core, which is uneasiness: anxious comes from Latin angere, to choke or distress, the root also of anguish and angina, and even in the ‘keen’ construction the keenness is coloured by worry about the outcome. Its plain opposite is calm or unworried, not unwilling. ‘Eager’ carries no such colouring and reverses the tested word along the single dimension the tested word measures, which is why it is the better answer of the two.
(b)Happy — ‘Happy’ names contentment — a state of feeling — and its own antonym is unhappy or sad. English does use ‘happy to’ as a politeness meaning ‘willing to’ (I shall be happy to attend), and that idiom is what makes the option look plausible, but it expresses agreeable consent rather than keenness, and a person can be perfectly happy while wanting to do nothing at all. Reluctance is not unhappiness: someone may be reluctant to sell a car he is delighted to own, and cheerful throughout. Matching the general warmth of a word instead of the dimension it measures is what this option is designed to catch.
(d)Unwilling — ‘Unwilling’ is a straight synonym of the tested word, not its opposite: reluctant and unwilling are given for each other in every dictionary, and the sentence means the same with either in place. It is here for the candidate who has read three synonym items and has not registered that the task changed at Q4. Its one virtue is diagnostic — if this option looked right, the mistake was not in the vocabulary but in the reading of the stem, and the same mistake is waiting at Q6, where ‘strange’ is offered against QUEER.

Concept

Willingness in English runs along a scale, and the vocabulary is dense at both ends. At the unwilling end: reluctant, unwilling, disinclined, hesitant, averse, loath, grudging, half-hearted. At the willing end: willing, ready, eager, keen, avid, enthusiastic, impatient, raring. The middle is thin, which is why an antonym item on this scale is answerable so cleanly — an option either drags back or leans forward.

Two distinctions inside the scale are worth carrying. ‘Averse’ and ‘adverse’ are different words: averse means disinclined and is used of persons with ‘to’ (averse to publicity), while adverse means unfavourable and is used of things (adverse remarks, adverse possession, an adverse balance). And ‘loath’, the adjective meaning unwilling, is not ‘loathe’, the verb meaning to detest, though the two are relatives.

Behind the item lies a general rule for antonyms: find the dimension. Reluctant measures willingness, so the answer must measure willingness. Words that measure mood (happy, sad), or temperament (anxious, calm), or capacity (able, unable) may all be pleasant or unpleasant in the right way and still fail, because they are answering a different question about the same person.

This is the middle item of the antonym set, and the setters have built it out of very ordinary words. Every candidate knows all five words in play; what is being tested is whether the ask has been read and whether the difference between two positive-sounding options can be stated.

The design of the set is consistent. Each of Q4, Q5 and Q6 offers one option that is a plain synonym of the tested word — hostility for enmity, unwilling for reluctant, strange for queer — and each buries the word ‘antonym’ in an unemphasised line of the stem. On this booklet there is no shared Directions block for Part A at all: the instruction is inside every stem because it changes eight times across the twenty items.

There is a second lesson here that is worth as much as the answer. When two options both point away from the tested word, the tie is broken by asking which one reverses it along the same dimension and in the same register, with no extra freight of meaning. That is a rule a candidate can apply under time pressure without having to adjudicate fine usage disputes, and it works on both of the near-miss options in this item.

Key facts

‘Reluctant’ is from Latin reluctari, to struggle against, on luctari, to wrestle; the word reports inward resistance rather than refusal, so a reluctant person may still act.
‘Eager’ comes through Old French aigre from Latin acer, sharp — the root of acute, acrid and acid, and of vinegar, vin aigre or sour wine.
Reluctant and eager take the identical grammatical frame, adjective plus to-infinitive, so the printed sentence reverses with a single word changed.
‘Anxious’ is from Latin angere, to choke or distress, the root of anguish and angina; its established ‘keen’ sense keeps a colouring of unease and its plain opposite is calm.
‘Unwilling’ is a dictionary synonym of ‘reluctant’, offered here because the ask changed from synonym to antonym at the previous question.
‘Averse’ (disinclined, used of persons with ‘to’) and ‘adverse’ (unfavourable, used of things) are different words and are regularly confused in this kind of item.

Reluctant measures willingness, so the answer must measure willingness

RELUCTANT→From Latin reluctari, to struggle against — re-, ‘back’, on luctari, ‘to wrestle’. The picture inside the word is of someone pulling the other way, so what it reports is inward resistance; a reluctant person may still end up acting.

(c) Eager→Sits at the other end of that same line. Through Old French aigre from Latin acer, sharp — the root of acute, acrid and acid, and of vinegar, vin aigre or sour wine. Where reluctance drags back, eagerness leans forward.

The grammatical proof→Both take the identical frame, adjective plus to-infinitive, so the printed sentence reverses with a single word changed: ‘She was RELUCTANT to sell her car’ becomes ‘She was eager to sell her car’.

(a) Anxious→In the ‘anxious to please’ construction it does point away from reluctance, but it never loses its core of uneasiness — from Latin angere, to choke, the root of anguish and angina. Its plain opposite is calm, not unwilling.

(b) Happy→Names contentment, a state of feeling, and its own antonym is unhappy or sad. Someone may be reluctant to sell a car he is delighted to own, and cheerful throughout.

(d) Unwilling→A plain dictionary synonym of the tested word, offered because the ask changed from synonym to antonym at the previous question. If it looked right, the mistake was in reading the stem, not in the vocabulary.

Study next

The willingness scale in both directions: reluctant, disinclined, averse, loath, grudging, half-hearted against willing, ready, eager, keen, avid, raring.‘Averse’ against ‘adverse’, and ‘loath’ against ‘loathe’ — pairs that differ in part of speech or in the thing they attach to.Adjectives that govern a to-infinitive — eager, reluctant, anxious, keen, quick, slow — and how the shared frame is used to test an antonym.The Latin root acer in English: acute, acrid, acid, acerbic, exacerbate, eager, vinegar.Usage notes worth knowing for English items: anxious for eager, disinterested for uninterested, and why an examiner prefers the unmixed word.

Common traps

Reading the stem as a synonym item and taking ‘unwilling’, which is a dictionary synonym of the tested word and would be right if the task had not changed.
Choosing between two positive options on warmth. ‘Happy’ describes a mood and ‘eager’ describes a disposition to act; only the second is on the tested word’s dimension.
Rejecting ‘anxious’ for the wrong reason — its ‘keen’ use is real English — instead of on the ground that it carries unease the tested word’s opposite should not.
Confusing ‘averse’ with ‘adverse’ when a related item offers one of them, which changes the question from disinclination to unfavourableness.

Antonym items on the EO/AO papers rarely turn on a hard word. They turn on the scale the word sits on, and they are made difficult by planting a synonym among the options and by offering two plausible reversals of which only one is unmixed. Expect the tested word to take a distinctive grammatical frame — a to-infinitive here — and use it: the option that fits the frame with nothing else changed is almost always the one the paper wants. Expect the same trap to be repeated across every item of the set rather than used once.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q4Open & attempt →

Which one of the following is the antonym of the word written in capital letters in the sentence, “There is a great deal of ENMITY”?

(a) Amity
(b) Cooperation
(c) Dispute
(d) Hostility

Answer(a) Amity

The first antonym item of the set, where the change of task is introduced and a synonym of the tested word is offered among the options.

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q6Open & attempt →

Which one of the following is the antonym of the word written in capital letters in the sentence, “I cannot comply with the QUEER regulations of your land”?

(a) Strange
(b) Nimble
(c) Everyday
(d) Customary

Answer(d) Customary

The last antonym item, which repeats the same design and again places a plain synonym of the tested word on the page.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is the antonym of the word written in capital letters in the sentence, “He gave a GRUDGING consent to the proposal”?
- (a)Hesitant
- (b)Wholehearted
- (c)Delayed
- (d)Written
Answer(b) Wholehearted — ‘grudging’ consent is given unwillingly and in the smallest measure possible, so its opposite is consent given without reservation. ‘Hesitant’ is a near-synonym, and ‘delayed’ and ‘written’ describe when and how the consent was given rather than how willingly.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is the antonym of the word written in capital letters in the sentence, “She is AVERSE to travelling by night”?
- (a)Opposed
- (b)Inclined
- (c)Afraid
- (d)Unable
Answer(b) Inclined — ‘averse to’ means disinclined or unwilling, so ‘inclined’ reverses it on the same dimension. ‘Opposed’ is a synonym, ‘afraid’ names a fear rather than a disinclination, and ‘unable’ speaks of capacity, not willingness.

Why