SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 19 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 synonym of the given word. Paramount

(a)trivial
(b)collateral
(c)inferior
(d)supreme

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Paramount means ranking above everything else in importance: when a report says safety is paramount, it means nothing outranks it.

Supreme carries the same superlative force — highest in rank or degree — so it replaces paramount without shifting the sense.

Option (d) is the match. Two of the remaining words sit at the opposite end of the importance scale, and the third belongs to a different sense altogether.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
trivial — Trivial means of little importance — the direct opposite of paramount. Sitting first in the list, it catches anyone who reads the instruction too fast and answers as though an antonym were wanted.
(b)
collateral — Collateral means running alongside or additional, as in collateral damage, and in finance it is property pledged against a loan. Either sense is subordinate to the main thing, never above it.
(c)
inferior — Inferior means lower in rank or quality. Like trivial, it sits at the bottom of the very scale that paramount tops.

Concept

Paramount is an absolute adjective. It does not describe a high degree of importance — it describes the top of the scale.

That is why it resists a comparative: you write of paramount importance rather than more paramount. Supreme behaves the same way, which is what makes the pair exact.

Both words survive in fixed titles: supreme commander, lord paramount, paramount chief — each naming the highest holder of an office.

Polarity alone does most of the work here. Two of these four options mean unimportant, which leaves a straight choice between supreme and collateral before you have weighed any shade of meaning.

Key facts

Paramount means more important than anything else, as in of paramount importance.
Supreme means highest in rank, authority or degree.
Collateral means additional or running alongside the main thing.
Trivial and inferior are antonyms of paramount, not near-misses.

Study next

Absolute adjectives that resist a comparative, such as supreme and paramountSorting the wrong options of a synonym item into antonyms and words from another senseThe two senses of collateral, the general one and the financial one

Common traps

Picking collateral because it is the least familiar word in the set.
Mis-hearing paramount as parallel and reaching for collateral.
Answering as though the instruction asked for an antonym, and choosing trivial.

The word is given bare and you return one word, so there is no sentence to test a candidate answer in.

Supreme is itself the keyed answer to a cloze blank at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.23, filling the gap in people who think that the law of karma is ____. Bare synonym items also run at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.14 and 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.