SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 97

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 most appropriate synonym of the given word. Adequate

(a)Hidden
(b)Sufficient
(c)Reconcile
(d)Evaluate

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Start with the part of speech. Adequate is an adjective, and only two of the four options are adjectives at all — Hidden and Sufficient. Reconcile and Evaluate are verbs.

That leaves a two-way choice, and meaning settles it. Adequate means enough for the purpose in hand: adequate funds, adequate warning.

Sufficient means enough, and it slots into those same phrases unchanged. Hidden means concealed, which says nothing about quantity → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Hidden — Hidden means concealed from view. Adequate is about how much of something there is, not about whether it can be seen, so the two never overlap.
(c)
Reconcile — Reconcile is a verb — to settle a quarrel, or to make two accounts agree. Adequate is an adjective, so the two cannot stand in for each other in any sentence.
(d)
Evaluate — Evaluate is also a verb, meaning to judge the worth of something. You might evaluate whether a supply is adequate, but that relation is not synonymy.

Concept

Two filters settle a one-word synonym item, and part of speech is the faster one. Adequate is an adjective, so any option that is a verb is out before meaning is even considered.

What survives is a two-way choice, and there meaning decides. Adequate means enough for the purpose in hand: adequate funds, adequate warning, an adequate explanation.

Sufficient means enough, and it substitutes into each of those phrases without changing what they say.

In careful use adequate can carry a faint "only just enough" overtone — "the food was adequate" is not praise — while sufficient is neutral about quality.

That shade is worth knowing, but it does not put another option ahead: the item asks for the nearest word among the four printed.

Key facts

Adequate means enough or good enough for a particular purpose.
Sufficient means enough in quantity and substitutes for adequate in most contexts.
Reconcile and Evaluate are verbs, so neither can be a synonym for an adjective.
Hidden means concealed and carries no sense of quantity.

Study next

Using part of speech to eliminate options in one-word synonym itemsThe quantity ladder: scant, adequate, sufficient, ample, abundantReconcile and evaluate in sentence-completion items, where the verb slot matters

Common traps

Skipping the part-of-speech check and weighing the two verbs on a vague sense of judgement.
Reading adequate as if it meant appropriate and hunting for a fit-related option.
Rejecting Sufficient because adequate sometimes hints at barely enough.

SSC gives one headword and four one-word options with no context sentence, which is exactly when the part-of-speech filter is worth applying before meaning.

The same shift asks the sentence-embedded version at English Q.5, where "immense" in "The city has immense coal piers" is keyed "huge".

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.