SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 18 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 phrase. Incapable of being defeated

(a)Invisible
(b)Unavoidable
(c)Invincible
(d)Ineluctable

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Invincible is in- ('not') plus vincible ('able to be conquered'), from Latin vincere, to conquer. That is the given phrase word for word: incapable of being defeated.

The trap is that all four options mean cannot be something. The prefix therefore decides nothing — sort them by the verb hidden inside each: see, avoid, escape, conquer.

Notice too that unavoidable and ineluctable mean much the same thing as each other. Two options that share a meaning cannot both be right, so neither is, and option (c) stands.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Invisible — Invisible is in- plus visible, from Latin videre, to see: incapable of being seen, not of being defeated. It answers a different phrase altogether.
(b)
Unavoidable — Unavoidable means cannot be avoided or prevented, which describes an event rather than a fighter. A defeat can itself be unavoidable, the opposite of what the phrase asks for.
(d)
Ineluctable — Ineluctable means impossible to escape or struggle out of, from Latin eluctari. Like unavoidable it names something you cannot get away from, not someone you cannot beat.

Concept

One-word substitution rewards etymology far more than vocabulary lists. Most answers are Latin or Greek roots wearing an English coat.

Split the word into prefix, root and suffix. Vincible carries vincere, to conquer; visible carries videre, to see. Once the root is out, the given phrase either matches it or it does not.

Where several options are all negatives, the negative prefix tells you nothing. Only the root can separate them.

Ineluctable is the least familiar word in the set and therefore the tempting one, but its sense is inescapable rather than unbeatable, so recognising it does not change the key.

Key facts

Invincible means incapable of being conquered or defeated, from Latin vincere, to conquer.
Invisible means incapable of being seen, from Latin videre, to see.
Ineluctable means impossible to escape or avoid, from Latin eluctari, to struggle out.
The prefix in- becomes im- before b, m and p, as in impossible and immobile.

Study next

Latin verb roots that recur in one-word substitutes: vincere, videre, credere, dicereThe negative prefixes in-, im-, il-, ir-, un- and non-, and where each is usedOne-word substitutes for places and collections, as at English Q.2 of this paper

Common traps

Reading invincible as invisible, because the two words look alike on a rushed second glance
Picking ineluctable because it is the unfamiliar word and unfamiliar words feel like exam answers

SSC either gives the definition and asks for the word, as here, or describes a place or a group. English Q.2 of this paper does the second, asking for a place where birds are kept.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.