Select the correct spelling to fill in the blank. The thought of eating half-cooked food under compulsion fills me with _____.

Correct — A. The word wanted is repugnance, the noun from the adjective repugnant — strong distaste or disgust, which is what half-cooked food eaten under compulsion produces.

Two decisions settle the spelling. The first syllable is the Latin prefix re-, the one in repel and repulse, so it is re-, never ri- or ra-.

And an adjective ending in -ant takes the noun ending -ance: repugnant gives repugnance, exactly as tolerant gives tolerance and relevant gives relevance. That rules out -ence, and only option (a) survives both tests.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  ripugnance — The prefix is re-, not ri-. The word is built on Latin re- plus pugnare, to fight, and the same re- shows in repel and repulsive.
• (c)
  repugnence — The stem is right and the suffix is wrong. The adjective is repugnant, and an -ant adjective never takes an -ence noun, so repugnence has no form behind it.
• (d)
  repegnance — The second vowel is u, from pugnare, the root also visible in pugnacious. Repegnance replaces that root vowel with one the word has never had.

Spelling items look like memory tests and are usually rule tests. Two rules cover most of what SSC sets here.

First, the -ance and -ence endings sound identical but pair predictably with the adjective: -ant goes with -ance (tolerant, tolerance) and -ent goes with -ence (different, difference). Recover the adjective and the noun spells itself.

Second, prefixes keep their own vowel. Re- stays re- whatever the stress does to it in speech, which is why ripugnance and repegnance can be struck out without knowing the word at all.

Key facts

• Repugnance means strong dislike or disgust, and its adjective is repugnant.
• Adjectives ending -ant take nouns ending -ance, as in tolerant and tolerance.
• Adjectives ending -ent take nouns ending -ence, as in different and difference.
• Repugnance comes from Latin re- plus pugnare, to fight, the root also behind pugnacious.

Common traps

• Choosing -ence because the ending is impossible to hear in speech.
• Checking only the first two letters of each option and missing a changed vowel further in.
• Skipping the sentence, which is what tells you a noun rather than an adjective is needed.

No directly related past PYQ was found.