NDA (II) 2022 General Ability Test · Question 9 of 150

Correct — B, insufficiency. 'Plenitude' is a noun meaning a full and abundant supply, so its opposite is a noun naming a shortage — 'insufficiency'. A second filter settles the item even faster: plenitude, abundance, insufficiency and plethora are nouns, while 'ample' is an adjective and cannot stand in for a noun.

• (a)abundance — 'Abundance' is a direct synonym of 'plenitude' — the very meaning the item asks you to reverse.
• (c)ample — 'Ample' means plentiful, so it agrees with 'plenitude' in sense, and as an adjective it does not even match the noun it would replace.
• (d)plethora — 'Plethora' means an excess or oversupply, which gives you more of 'plenitude' rather than less.

An antonym item on the noun 'plenitude' — an abundant supply — whose reverse among the choices is 'insufficiency', a shortage.

Part of speech is the quickest filter in a vocabulary item, because a substitute has to slot into the same place in the sentence. Once 'ample' is set aside on that ground, three nouns remain and two of them mean plenty. The sentence pushes the same way, since its claim is that having too much is what degrades the environment.

• 'Plenitude' means fullness or an abundant supply; the related adjective is 'plentiful'.
• 'Plethora' originally meant an unhealthy excess and still carries the sense of too much.
• Scarcity, dearth, paucity and insufficiency are its standard opposites.

• Choosing 'abundance' or 'plethora', both of which restate 'plenitude'.
• Overlooking that 'ample' is an adjective where a noun is required.

Asked as an antonym item — choose the word opposite in meaning to the underlined word 'plenitude'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Select the word opposite in meaning to 'surplus'.

  • (a)excess
  • (b)glut
  • (c)deficit
  • (d)plenty

  Answer(c) deficit — a surplus is what is left over and a deficit is what is missing.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Select the word opposite in meaning to 'plethora'.

  • (a)excess
  • (b)scarcity
  • (c)abundance
  • (d)profusion

  Answer(b) scarcity — a plethora is too much of something, and scarcity is too little.