SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 17 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 most appropriate meaning of the underlined word. Solomon’s reputation as an accountant is taintless .

(a)dubious
(b)inconsistent
(c)faultless
(d)flawed

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The load-bearing part is the suffix. -less means 'without', so taintless names the absence of something bad and the word is therefore praise.

A taint is a trace of contamination or disgrace — the stain on a name. Take the stain away and you have a reputation with nothing against it.

Faultless says the same thing through a different metaphor, so option (c) is the meaning. The remaining three all describe a reputation that has something wrong with it, which is precisely what -less removes.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
dubious — Dubious means doubtful or open to suspicion. That describes a reputation that carries a taint, so it reverses the sense the suffix -less builds.
(b)
inconsistent — Inconsistent means not steady or not in agreement with itself. It is still a criticism, and a taint is a blemish rather than a variation.
(d)
flawed — Flawed is the plain opposite: having a defect. It is what you get by answering the root, taint, and forgetting the -less that negates it.

Concept

Vocabulary items often hand you the answer through the affix even when the stem is unfamiliar. -less added to a noun means 'without it': faultless, harmless, penniless, seamless.

So a candidate who has never met taintless can still place it, provided they read the whole word and not just the part they recognise.

The stem itself is worth holding: a taint is a trace of a bad quality, and to taint something is to spoil it by contact.

Three of the four options are negative words, and only one is positive. Once the suffix tells you the word is a compliment, the answer is decided before you compare shades of meaning.

Key facts

-less attached to a noun means without that thing: faultless, harmless, penniless.
A taint is a trace of a bad quality or a stain on a reputation.
Spotless, unblemished and faultless all describe something with no stain on it.

Study next

Negating affixes: -less, un-, in-, dis-, non-Meaning-of-the-underlined-word items where the affix settles the answerWords for an unspoilt record: spotless, untarnished, unimpeachable

Common traps

Answering the root and ignoring the suffix, since taint is negative and taintless is not.
Choosing flawed because it is the most familiar word among the four.
Looking for a clue in the sentence when the word itself carries the whole answer.

SSC pairs a rare stem with a common affix so that root-reading, not recall, is the way in.

The same skill also decides 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.9 (misleading → mendacious) and English Q.3 (antonym of Mechanical → Manual).

Related PYQs

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