Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word. Hinder

Correct — A. Hinder is a verb meaning to obstruct, delay or make difficult, so its opposite must also be a verb, and must mean to make the same thing easier.

Facilitate is exactly that — from Latin facilis, easy — to smooth a process along. The key takes option (a).

Part of speech is doing real work in this set. An antonym has to be able to stand in the headword's slot, which drops a noun before its meaning is even considered.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Block — Block means to obstruct, which is what hinder already means. In an antonym item the planted synonym is the option to distrust first.
• (c)
  Praise — Praise reverses blame or criticise. It works on how you speak of something, not on whether you get in its way.
• (d)
  Joy — Joy is a noun while hinder is a verb, so it cannot replace the headword whatever it means. Part of speech eliminates this option before sense does.

An antonym must be substitutable for the headword, which makes part of speech the first filter and meaning the second.

Hinder as a verb means to obstruct, delay or hold back. Its opposite is not merely the absence of obstruction but active help — facilitate, to make a process easier, from Latin facilis, easy.

Hinder also lives as an adjective meaning situated at the back, as in hinder legs, whose opposite would be front. SSC keys the verb, which is the everyday sense.

Key facts

• Hinder as a verb means to obstruct or delay something.
• Facilitate means to make a process easier, from Latin facilis meaning easy.
• An antonym must match the headword's part of speech, so a noun cannot answer a verb.

Common traps

• Picking block, which restates hinder instead of reversing it.
• Overlooking that joy is a noun and so cannot be the antonym of a verb.

No directly related past PYQ was found.