SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 13 of 99

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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. An utter state of confusion

(a)Chaos
(b)Pathos
(c)Innuendos
(d)Engross

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The clue asks for a noun naming a state — an utter state of confusion — and chaos is exactly that: complete disorder, with no arrangement left to find.

The rest of the set is cleared on grammar before meaning. Pathos names a quality, innuendos is a plural count noun and engross is a verb, so not one of them can stand as the name of a state. Option (a) can.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Pathos — Pathos is the quality in a scene or a piece of writing that stirs pity or sadness. It names an emotional effect on a reader, not a condition of disorder.
(c)
Innuendos — Innuendos are indirect, usually unpleasant hints dropped about somebody. The word is plural and countable, so it cannot name a single state at all.
(d)
Engross — Engross is a verb, meaning to take up the whole of somebody's attention. A one-word substitute for a state has to be a noun, which rules it out before meaning is even reached.

Concept

This option set rhymes, and that is the point of it. Chaos, pathos, innuendos and engross share an -os ending and share nothing else, so a candidate matching on sound has nothing to go on.

Two filters settle it quickly.

Part of speech first: the clue is a noun phrase, so the verb engross is out.

Number next: a state is singular, so the plural innuendos is out. What survives is then judged on meaning, and chaos is the word for total confusion.

Chaos and pathos both end in -os and both are singular, uncountable nouns, so the ending is no guide to number here.

Key facts

Chaos means complete disorder and confusion, and it is an uncountable noun.
Pathos is the quality that evokes pity or sadness in an audience.
An innuendo is an indirect remark, usually a disparaging one.
Engross is a verb meaning to absorb the whole of somebody's attention.

Study next

One-word substitutes for disorder: chaos, anarchy, pandemonium, turmoilEliminating options by part of speech before weighing meaningSingular nouns that look plural: chaos, pathos, bathos, news

Common traps

Rejecting chaos because it feels too ordinary for a vocabulary question
Reading innuendos as a singular noun
Matching on the shared -os ending instead of on sense

The option set here is built on sound rather than on sense, which is a shape worth recognising early. One-word substitution also appears in this paper at English Q.10, Q.11 and Q.20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.