SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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 ANTONYM of the given word. Meander

(a)Deputise
(b)Confirm
(c)Ramble
(d)Direct

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Meander means to follow a winding, roundabout course — a river that loops, or a speaker who wanders off the point.

Its opposite is going straight to the target. Direct carries exactly that, as an adjective (a direct route) and as a verb (to direct something straight at something), so option (d) is the antonym.

The word itself remembers a river: meander comes from the Maeander, the classical name of the Buyuk Menderes in Turkey, famous in antiquity for its bends.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Deputise — Deputise means to act on someone else's behalf, or to appoint a deputy. It belongs to the vocabulary of delegation, not of movement, so it reverses nothing in meander.
(b)
Confirm — Confirm means to establish that something is true. It answers a question about certainty, not about the shape of a path.
(c)
Ramble — Ramble is a synonym of meander — to wander without a fixed route, or to talk on without a point. The question asks for the opposite, and this is the near-identical word planted to catch a fast reader.

Concept

An antonym item is decided in two moves: fix the sense of the question word, then find the option that reverses that sense rather than merely differing from it.

Meander has two live senses. Physically, a river or road meanders when it winds. Figuratively, a person meanders when they talk or write without keeping to the point.

Direct reverses both — a direct route does not wind, and direct speech goes straight to the point. The other three options are not opposites of anything in meander; they simply belong to other subject areas.

Meander is a verb and a noun, while Direct works as an adjective and a verb. Judge these sets by whether the sense is reversed, not by whether the grammatical form matches.

Key facts

Meander means to follow a winding course, or to wander without a clear direction.
The word comes from the Maeander, the classical name of the Buyuk Menderes river in Turkey.
In physical geography, a meander is a pronounced bend in a river's course.
Ramble, wind and wander are synonyms of meander, not antonyms.

Study next

Words built from place names: meander from the Maeander, laconic from Laconia, spartan from SpartaAntonym pairs for manner of movement: meander and direct, dawdle and hasten, digress and focusSynonym-as-distractor patterns inside ANTONYM questions

Common traps

Choosing Ramble because it clearly relates to meander, when relation is not opposition.
Reading only the geographical sense and missing that meander also means to talk without a point.

SSC asks antonyms with the word bare, as here, or underlined in a sentence — this shift does both, at English Q7 (The Merchant of Venice) and English Q9 (Deficient). The 11 Sep 2024, 09:00 shift asks the same bare form at English Q9, the antonym of Forbid.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.