Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the following sentence. The teammates made several jibes at the opponent team members during the interview.
- (a)Inspiration
- (b)Contradict
- (c)Consolation
- (d)Mockery
Answer
Why
Correct — B. Weigh the options against the senses of jibe. Mockery repeats the taunt sense instead of reversing it, and inspiration and consolation name kindly acts rather than the reverse of a taunt.
What is left is the verb sense of jibe, to be in accord, to agree — "the two accounts do not jibe". The straight opposite of agreeing is contradicting, which is option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Inspiration — Inspiration is what stirs somebody to act. It is a kindly counterpart to a taunt, not the reverse of jibe in either sense the word carries.
- (c)Consolation — Consolation is comfort offered after distress. It answers a taunt rather than opposing it, and it has no bearing at all on jibe's other sense, agreeing.
- (d)Mockery — Mockery is a synonym of the jibes in this sentence, not an antonym. It is the trap for a candidate who fixes the sense correctly and then matches it instead of reversing it.
Concept
Jibe carries two unrelated senses. As a noun, also spelt gibe, it is a taunt or mocking remark. As a verb it means to tally or be in accord — "his story does not jibe with the evidence".
An antonym item has one answer only once the sense is settled, and among these four options just one sense yields a clean opposite: the verb sense, reversed by contradict.
When a word has two senses, read the options before you fix the sense. The options tell you which sense the setter had in mind.
Worth naming the friction. In the printed sentence jibes is a plural noun meaning taunts, while contradict is a verb, so the keyed antonym belongs to the word's dictionary range rather than to the use in front of you.
Key facts
- As a noun, a jibe (also spelt gibe) is a taunting or mocking remark.
- As a verb, to jibe with something means to agree with it or be in accord with it.
- Contradict is the direct opposite of that verb sense of jibe.
Study next
Common traps
- Fixing the sense from the sentence and then finding no true opposite among the four options
- Choosing mockery because it matches the sentence, when the question asks for the reverse
SSC sets antonym items both as a bare word and inside a sentence. The same shift gives the bare-word form at English Q.3 (Lethargic) and the in-sentence form at English Q.2 and Q.16.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.