Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word. Maverick

Correct — B. A maverick is an independent-minded person who will not follow the group. The word means nonconformist.

Bohemian names the same refusal in a social register: someone who lives outside conventional rules and expectations, especially in artistic circles.

Conformist, orthodox and follower all point the other way, towards obedience to the norm. Bohemian alone sits on the maverick side → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Conformist — Conformist is the exact opposite: someone who follows accepted rules and behaviour, where a maverick refuses to.
• (c)
  Orthodox — Orthodox means conventional, holding to established belief or practice. A maverick is defined by breaking with the established, not by keeping to it.
• (d)
  Follower — Follower names someone who takes another person's lead. The maverick is the one who will not, so this reverses the sense.

Maverick came into English from Samuel Maverick, a Texas rancher whose cattle went unbranded. An unbranded calf became a maverick, and from there the word came to mean a person who carries nobody's brand — independent, unorthodox.

Bohemian travelled a different road to the same place. It named a wandering people wrongly thought to have come from Bohemia, then the unconventional artists of nineteenth-century France, then anyone who lives by their own rules.

Both words end at nonconformity, which is why they pair.

Key facts

• A maverick is an unorthodox, independent-minded person.
• Bohemian describes an unconventional way of life, often associated with artists and writers.
• Conformist and orthodox both mean keeping to accepted rules or beliefs.

Common traps

• Choosing conformist because the eye stops at the first option that is clearly about conformity
• Treating orthodox as neutral and forgetting that it means conventional
• Reading bohemian as a nationality rather than a way of life

No directly related past PYQ was found.