SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 2 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 ANTONYM of the underlined word. Her remarks were relevant to the discussion.

(a)Suitable
(b)Inappropriate
(c)Conclusive
(d)Introductory

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Relevant means bearing directly on the matter being discussed.

The cleanest route is the pairing inside the option list: suitable is what relevant already says here, and the straight opposite of suitable is inappropriate.

An inappropriate remark is one that does not fit the discussion it is made in, which is exactly the reversal asked for — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Suitable — Suitable is a synonym in this frame, not an opposite. Remarks suitable to a discussion are remarks relevant to it.
(c)
Conclusive — Conclusive measures whether remarks settle the question. Its own opposite is inconclusive, which is a different axis from fitness to the topic.
(d)
Introductory — Introductory places the remarks at the start of proceedings. That is a point of order, and its opposite would be closing or concluding.

Concept

An antonym item gives four words on several different axes, and only one of them turns on the same axis as the key word.

Here the axis is fitness to the topic. Test each option by asking what its own opposite is: conclusive pairs with inconclusive, introductory pairs with concluding, and neither pair touches relevance.

Inappropriate is the one word left whose opposite — appropriate, suitable, fitting — is what relevant means in this sentence.

The exact antonym of relevant is irrelevant, and SSC does not offer it. The instruction asks for the most appropriate antonym among the four printed, so the nearest opposite wins.

Key facts

Relevant means bearing directly on the matter under discussion.
Inappropriate means not suited to the occasion or the context.
Conclusive means decisive or settling a question, and its opposite is inconclusive.

Study next

Antonym sets where the exact opposite is withheld and a near opposite is keyedNegative prefixes ir-, in-, im- and which stem takes whichTesting an option by naming its own opposite before comparing it to the key word

Common traps

Hunting for irrelevant, not finding it, and then picking a word off the wrong axis
Choosing suitable, which is a synonym of relevant here
Reading the sentence as praise and looking for a word that criticises the speaker rather than the remarks

Antonyms of an underlined word come back at English Q.12 and English Q.16 of this same paper. Q.12 plants a synonym among its options — Mockery against jibes — exactly as Suitable is planted here.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Antonyms — all 102 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.