SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 98

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. Thankful

(a)Affirmation
(b)Ungrateful
(c)Obliged
(d)Obscure

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Thankful is an adjective describing a person who feels gratitude, and obliged carries that same sense: 'much obliged' is a set expression meaning thankful.

Both words describe the person who received the favour rather than the favour itself, and both are adjectives, so option (c) matches on sense and on part of speech together.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Affirmation — Affirmation is a noun meaning a statement that asserts something to be true. Wrong part of speech, and asserting a fact is not feeling grateful.
(b)
Ungrateful — Ungrateful is the direct opposite of thankful, put here to catch a candidate who has skimmed the stem and is hunting for an antonym.
(d)
Obscure — Obscure means unclear or little known. It shares its opening letters with obliged and nothing more.

Concept

Obliged has two live senses, and the one students forget is the one tested here.

The first is compulsion: 'she was obliged to resign' means she had no choice. The second is gratitude: 'I am much obliged to you' means thankful.

This item wants the second. When a synonym option looks wrong, test whether the word has a second sense before rejecting it — that habit decides more of these items than the size of your vocabulary does.

'Much obliged' is formal and a little old-fashioned in speech, which is why the grateful sense does not come to mind at once. It is still standard English.

Key facts

Obliged can mean grateful or indebted, as in 'much obliged'.
Obliged can also mean bound or compelled, as in 'obliged to attend'.
Ungrateful is the antonym of thankful, not a synonym of it.

Study next

Words carrying both a compulsion sense and a gratitude sense: obliged, indebted, beholdenAdjective synonyms tested against noun distractorsAntonym-as-distractor patterns inside synonym items

Common traps

Rejecting obliged because only its 'compelled' sense comes to mind.
Choosing ungrateful after misreading the stem as an antonym question.

The bare-word synonym form is used here, and the same gratitude vocabulary returns in substitution items.

On 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.17 the underlined 'great to his friends' has to be corrected to grateful. English Q.3 (Labour) and Q.11 (Bully) of this paper also ask bare-word synonyms.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.