Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word. Desolate

Correct — C. Desolate runs on two senses at once: a place that is deserted and bleak, and a person who feels wretched and forlorn.

Festive reverses both — a festive place is full of people and celebration, and a festive mood is cheerful.

Frugal, allusive and melancholic either miss the sense or repeat it, which leaves option (c) as the choice that moves towards joy.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Frugal — frugal means sparing with money or food. Its opposite is extravagant, and it says nothing about desolation.
• (b)
  Allusive — allusive means making indirect reference to something. It is commonly confused with elusive, meaning hard to catch, and neither word opposes desolate.
• (d)
  Melancholic — melancholic means sad and gloomy — a near-synonym of the feeling sense of desolate, so it strengthens the headword instead of reversing it.

A bare headword gives you no sentence, so the first job is deciding which sense you are opposing.

Desolate holds a place sense — deserted, barren, bleak — and a feeling sense, miserable and forlorn. A sound antonym answers at least one of them cleanly.

Festive answers both, which is why it beats options that merely sound learned.

Key facts

• Desolate means deserted and bleak, or utterly wretched.
• Festive means relating to a celebration, and so cheerful and lively.
• Allusive means containing allusions, and is a different word from elusive, which means hard to catch.
• Frugal means economical or sparing, the opposite of extravagant.

Common traps

• Picking melancholic because it is the closest word in meaning, when the stem asks for the opposite.
• Reading allusive as elusive and then arguing from the wrong word.
• Expecting a neat one-to-one opposite, when festive answers the mood rather than the emptiness.

No directly related past PYQ was found.