Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word. Purify

Correct — C. Purify means to take contaminants out of something and make it clean or pure.

Pollute is the exact reverse operation: to put harmful or unclean matter into air, water, soil or food. Removing versus adding is what makes option (c) the antonym rather than a loose opposite.

Only one option moves in that direction. Wash moves the same way as purify, and chant and invite do not sit on the clean-dirty scale at all.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Chant — Chant means to recite or sing words repeatedly, often in worship. It is bait for anyone who links purify to purification rituals, but a manner of speaking cannot be the opposite of making something clean.
• (b)
  Invite — Invite means to ask someone to come. It has no relation to cleanliness or contamination, so it is filler in this set rather than a competing answer.
• (d)
  Wash — Wash points the same way as purify — both remove dirt. A same-direction word planted among the options is the standard decoy in SSC antonym items, and a synonym can never be the answer.

An SSC antonym stem is a bare word with no sentence, so there is no context to lean on. Decide by direction instead.

Sort the four options into those pointing the same way as the stem and those pointing against it. Wash joins purify on the cleaning side. Chant and invite point nowhere on this scale.

That leaves pollute alone on the opposite side, and a four-option item has exactly one answer.

Key facts

• Purify means to remove contaminants and make something clean or pure.
• Pollute means to add harmful or unclean matter to air, water or land.
• Contaminate, taint, defile and adulterate belong with pollute.
• Cleanse, refine, filter and sanitise belong with purify.

Common traps

• Choosing Wash because the item feels like it is about water, when wash points the same way as purify
• Choosing Chant on the association with purification rituals rather than on meaning

No directly related past PYQ was found.