SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 12 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. Fear of closed spaces

(a)Photophobia
(b)Claustrophobia
(c)Agoraphobia
(d)Optophobia

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Split the word at its root. Claustro- is from Latin claustrum, a bolt or an enclosed place — the same root that gives English cloister, a closed courtyard.

Add -phobia (Greek phobos, fear) and the compound means, literally, fear of enclosed places: lifts, tunnels, small windowless rooms.

The definition names enclosure, and option (b) is the only option whose root does.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Photophobia — Photo- is Greek for light, so photophobia is about light, not enclosure. It is the standard medical term for painful sensitivity to light.
(c)
Agoraphobia — Agora is Greek for marketplace, so agoraphobia points at open and public places — the near-opposite of closed spaces, which is why it reads as the natural rival to the keyed word.
(d)
Optophobia — The root opt- is from Greek optos, meaning seen, so this term concerns the eyes and sight. Whatever a phobia list makes of it, it cannot render 'closed spaces'.

Concept

Phobia words are transparent once you separate the two halves: a Greek or Latin root naming the thing feared, then -phobia from Greek phobos, fear.

So the item is really a root test. You are not asked whether you have met claustrophobia clinically, only whether you can read claustro- as enclosure, agora- as open marketplace and photo- as light.

That is why guessing on familiarity fails here and root-splitting does not.

Claustrophobia and agoraphobia are printed together so often that many candidates remember the pair but not which is which.

The cure is the root, not the memory: claustrum is a closed place, an agora is an open one.

Key facts

Claustro- is from Latin claustrum, an enclosed place, the root behind English cloister.
-phobia is from Greek phobos, meaning fear.
Agoraphobia is built on the Greek agora, a marketplace, and points at open or public places.
Photophobia is built on Greek photos, light, and names painful sensitivity to light.

Study next

Phobia words by root: hydrophobia, acrophobia, xenophobiaGreek and Latin roots for place: agora, claustrum, domusSuffix families used in one-word substitution: -phobia, -phile, -cide, -archy

Common traps

Swapping claustrophobia and agoraphobia, which are printed together here as each other's trap.
Choosing the least familiar-looking option on the assumption that a technical word must be the answer.
Guessing from English lookalikes instead of splitting the word at its root.

SSC keeps a small stable of phobia and -logy words and rotates them across shifts, sometimes as a one-word substitution and sometimes as a blank in a sentence — acrophobia at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.11 is the second shape.

The one-word-substitution framing also appears at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11 (choice between two unsatisfactory alternatives → Dilemma) and English Q.4 (Foreword).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.