Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the following sentence. It was difficult to accommodate the avariciousness of the people.

Correct — D. The underlined word is avariciousness, the noun for extreme greed for money or possessions.

Its opposite is not merely the absence of greed but the habit of giving freely, and that word is generosity — option (d).

The sentence agrees: what is hard to accommodate is people's endless wanting, so the antonym has to name the open-handedness that answers it.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Criticism — Criticism is fault-finding. Its opposite is praise or approval, and greed is not a species of criticism.
• (b)
  Envy — Envy is the near miss: it is resentment at what someone else has, while avarice is wanting more for yourself. Both are forms of wanting, which makes envy a neighbour rather than an opposite.
• (c)
  Hatred — Hatred is intense dislike, opposed by love or affection. Nothing in avariciousness is about disliking anyone.

Avarice is greed for wealth. Its adjective is avaricious and its noun forms are avarice and avariciousness, the longer one built by stacking -ness on the adjective.

The true opposite of a vice of holding is a virtue of giving: generosity, liberality, munificence.

Here the other three options are all negative words, like avarice itself. When a given word is negative and one option alone is positive, check that option first — then confirm the sense, because polarity on its own is not proof.

Key facts

• Avarice means extreme greed for wealth, and avaricious is its adjective.
• Generosity is the readiness to give more than is expected.
• Envy is resentment of what another person has, which is not the opposite of greed.

Common traps

• Choosing envy because both words are about wanting
• Answering the sentence rather than the word, since accommodate suggests tolerance
• Assuming the antonym must be a single-word negative such as selflessness

No directly related past PYQ was found.