SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 2 of 99

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. Acquiesce

(a)Thwart
(b)Cease
(c)Desist
(d)Concur

Answer

Why

Correct — D. To acquiesce is to accept or agree to something without protest, usually reluctantly and in silence.

Concur means to agree, so option (d) is the one word here that sits on the agreement side of the line.

The remaining three all name stopping or blocking. Acquiescing often ends an argument, but the word reports the agreement, not the halt that follows it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Thwart — Thwart means to block or frustrate someone's plan. That is active opposition, the reverse of quietly going along with something.
(b)
Cease — Cease means to stop an action. Giving in may lead you to stop resisting, but the word names the end of an activity, not consent to a proposal.
(c)
Desist — Desist means to stop doing something, often on being asked to. Like cease it reports a halt, and a halt is a different relation to an act than agreeing to it.

Concept

Acquiesce belongs to the quiet-agreement family: assent, consent, concur, comply.

What marks it off from plain agree is manner and grammar. The manner is passive and often reluctant, and the verb normally takes in or to, as in she acquiesced in the decision.

An SSC synonym item does not ask you to match the shade of reluctance. It asks which option lies on the same side of the meaning, and that side is agreement rather than refusal or stopping.

Concur is a degree more active than acquiesce: to concur is to voice agreement, to acquiesce is to let something pass.

SSC synonym items regularly accept the nearest available word rather than an exact match, and no closer word than concur is offered.

Key facts

Acquiesce means to accept or agree without protest, and normally takes the preposition in or to.
Concur means to agree, and takes with before a person, as in I concur with you.
Cease and desist both mean to stop, which is why they are the natural foils in an item about agreeing.

Study next

Agreement verbs with their prepositions: acquiesce in, concur with, consent toOpposition verbs used as synonym-item foils, such as thwart, foil and stymieNoun forms of the same family, such as acquiescence and concurrence

Common traps

Reading the reluctance in acquiesce as unwillingness and reaching for a stopping verb like desist
Picking Thwart because it is the most striking word on the list

SSC tests the same word from the opposite direction at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.16, where Acquiescence is offered as a foil for the antonym of Affirmative and the key is Negative. It is a foil there for the reason it is the answer here, that acquiescence is agreement.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.