SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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 10 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 ANTONYM of the given word to fill in the blank. Capricious Share market prices have remained __________ for weeks.

(a)fickle
(b)stable
(c)volatile
(d)mischievous

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Capricious means given to sudden, unaccountable change of mood or direction — of prices, swinging without warning.

The stem asks for the ANTONYM, so the blank needs the reverse of that, not a restatement of it. Fickle and volatile say the same thing as the headword, which is exactly why they are on the list.

stable is the word for steady and not fluctuating, so it is both the antonym of the headword and the fit for the sentence. Option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
fickle — fickle is a synonym of capricious rather than its opposite — it describes changeable loyalty or mood, which is the headword's own sense and not its reverse.
(c)
volatile — volatile is the market's own word for sharp, unpredictable movement. It sits on the same side of the meaning as capricious, so it cannot be its antonym.
(d)
mischievous — mischievous means playfully naughty. It touches the impulsive shade of capricious but describes behaviour, not steadiness, and it is not used of prices.

Concept

An antonym item with a sentence attached is two jobs, and they are not the same job. The sentence fixes which sense of the headword is in play; the word ANTONYM fixes which side of it to answer on.

First the word: capricious means liable to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood, behaviour or direction.

Then the direction. Do not expect the frame to do the eliminating — "prices have remained volatile for weeks" is ordinary English. What rules volatile and fickle out is that they are synonyms of capricious.

SSC prints the headword above the sentence, so the item can be attempted from either end. Here the sentence only narrows the sense to market movement; the four options are separated by the word ANTONYM.

Key facts

Capricious means given to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood or behaviour.
Fickle and volatile are close synonyms of capricious, not antonyms of it.
Stable means firmly fixed, steady and not likely to change.
Mischievous means playfully troublesome, which is a behaviour word rather than a stability word.

Study next

Antonym items where an attached sentence fixes the sense but not the answerMarket vocabulary SSC reuses: volatile, stable, fluctuate, plummetTelling capricious, fickle, whimsical and mischievous apart

Common traps

Picking fickle because it is closest to capricious, when the stem asks for the antonym.
Letting the sentence do the eliminating — the frame would take volatile just as happily as stable.
Reading volatile as "strong" instead of "liable to sudden change".

The stem capitalises ANTONYM and then hands you a sentence. Read the capitalised word as the instruction and the sentence as context, not the other way round.

Bare-headword antonyms are also asked in this shift at English Q.17 (Desolate) and at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 (Hinder → Facilitate).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.