SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 19 of 100

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 10 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. Dissipate

(a)Malicious
(b)Haste
(c)Glorious
(d)Spend

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Dissipate is a verb with two live senses: to scatter or disperse, as fog dissipates, and to use up wastefully, as in dissipating a fortune.

Spend matches the second sense, and it is also the only verb offered. Malicious and glorious are adjectives and haste is a noun in current use, so none of the three can stand where a verb stands.

Option (d) wins on both counts — word class first, then meaning.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Malicious — Malicious is an adjective meaning intending harm. It shares no sense with dissipate, and an adjective cannot replace a verb in a sentence.
(b)
Haste — Haste is a noun meaning excessive speed. Hurrying is not the same as using up, and a noun will not substitute for the verb dissipate.
(c)
Glorious — Glorious is an adjective meaning splendid or full of glory. It is the furthest of the four from either sense of dissipate.

Concept

A synonym item is settled in two passes.

First, word class. The given word is a verb, so every option that is not a verb is out before its meaning is weighed. That check alone decides this question.

Second, which sense. Dissipate disperses things — mist, a crowd, a doubt — and it also squanders them, as with money, energy or an inheritance. The key here takes the squandering sense, which is why spend rather than scatter is on the list.

Spend is a loose fit. You can spend money carefully, whereas dissipating it is always wasteful, so squander is the closer word. Treat spend as the best available option rather than an exact equal, because the remaining three are not even verbs.

Key facts

Dissipate carries two current senses: to disperse or vanish, and to squander.
Among these four options only spend is a verb, so word class settles the item before meaning does.
Squander is the closest single-word synonym for the wasteful sense of dissipate.

Study next

The dispersal sense of dissipate, as in the fog dissipated by noonSynonym pairs set in other shifts, such as assess for evaluate and belligerent for pugnaciousUsing word class to eliminate options in synonym and antonym items

Common traps

Picking Haste because dissipate sounds like a hurried, careless action.
Testing only the dispersal sense and concluding that nothing on the list fits.
Accepting an adjective as the synonym of a verb without checking the form.

Here the word is printed bare, with no sentence to fix its sense, so word class is your first filter. The same shape appears at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.1 (Evaluate, keyed Assess) and 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 (Pugnacious, keyed Belligerent).

When the word is instead underlined inside a sentence, the sentence tells you which sense is wanted.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Synonyms — all 96 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.