Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. A person who has supreme power or authority

Correct — D. The definition has two halves and sovereign matches both: supreme (nothing stands above it) and authority (the right to rule, not merely the strength to).

As a noun, a sovereign is the person in whom that final power rests - a monarch, or in constitutional language whoever holds ultimate say.

The definition also opens 'A person who', so the answer must be a noun naming a person. Two of the rejected words are adjectives and the third is an abstract noun, so none of them can name anybody. Option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Foreign — Foreign is an adjective meaning belonging to another country. It describes where something comes from, and it names no person at all.
• (b)
  Secular — Secular is an adjective meaning not connected with religion. Applied to a state it describes neutrality between faiths, not supremacy over anyone.
• (c)
  Diversity — Diversity is an abstract noun meaning variety, the condition of being made up of different kinds. It names a quality, not a ruler.

A one-word substitute has to match the definition's word class as well as its sense. 'A person who has supreme power' asks for a personal noun, which by itself clears two adjectives off the list.

Sovereign works both ways. As a noun it is the supreme ruler or the supreme authority; as an adjective it describes a state subject to no other.

The word reached English from Old French soverain, built on Latin super, 'above'. The idea of standing over everything is inside the word, which is a useful hook when you meet it in a comprehension passage.

Key facts

• As a noun sovereign means a supreme ruler, and as an adjective it means subject to no other authority.
• The Preamble to the Constitution of India describes India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.
• Secular means unconnected with religion and describes a stance, not a degree of power.
• Sovereign is spelt with a g that its Latin root super never had, picked up by association with reign.

Common traps

• Picking secular because it stands beside sovereign in the Preamble.
• Knowing sovereign only as a gold coin and rejecting it as too narrow.
• Reading past 'A person who', which is the phrase that eliminates every adjective here.

No directly related past PYQ was found.