Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the word in bold. His mother never held a grudge against his father.

Correct — A. A grudge is a lasting feeling of resentment kept against someone.

Its opposite is goodwill, and the option that names goodwill is benevolence — the disposition to wish others well and do them good.

All four options are nouns, so form does not separate them. The item turns on polarity, and only option (a) is on the positive side.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  malevolence — Malevolence is the wish to do harm, the same direction as a grudge rather than its reverse. It is the antonym of benevolence, which is why it has been set beside it.
• (c)
  rancour — Rancour is bitter, long-held ill will — very nearly what a grudge is. It is a synonym trap, not an opposite.
• (d)
  revulsion — Revulsion is disgust or loathing, a recoil rather than a stored grievance. It is still a hostile feeling, so it cannot be the opposite of one.

Antonym items are settled in two steps.

Fix the part of speech first. Grudge is a noun here (held a grudge), so the answer must be a noun — which is why all four options are nouns.

Then fix the polarity. Three of these options name hostile feelings, and an antonym has to cross to the other side.

The roots settle any doubt: Latin bene means well and male means ill, so benevolence and malevolence are themselves an opposed pair.

Key facts

• A grudge is a persistent feeling of resentment held against a person.
• Benevolence is the disposition to do good, from Latin bene (well) and velle (to wish).
• Malevolence is the direct opposite of benevolence, so both cannot answer one antonym item.
• Rancour means bitter, deep-seated ill will.

Common traps

• Choosing malevolence because it is the most technical-looking word in the set
• Treating revulsion as the far end of a scale that runs through grudge
• Answering from the meaning of the sentence rather than of the bold word

No directly related past PYQ was found.