SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 5 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 underlined word in the following sentence. Sachin Tendulkar was an indispensable member of the Indian cricket team in his days.

(a)Optional
(b)Essential
(c)Functional
(d)Motivational

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Indispensable is dispensable with the negative prefix in- on the front: something you cannot dispense with, cannot do without. That is essential, option (b).

Dispense with is the phrasal verb meaning to manage without. Calling Tendulkar indispensable to the side says the side could not manage without him.

Optional in option (a) is the exact opposite, and it is placed there for a reader who skims past the in-.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Optional — Optional means you may take it or leave it — the direct opposite of indispensable. It is the trap for anyone who reads the stem and drops the negative prefix.
(c)
Functional — Functional means working, or serving a practical purpose. A functional player does a job; an indispensable one is a player the team cannot do without.
(d)
Motivational — Motivational means inspiring others to act. Tendulkar may well have been that too, but it is not what the underlined word says.

Concept

Indispensable is a prefix-and-stem word, and this kind of item rewards taking it apart rather than recalling it whole.

dispense with means to do without. -able turns it into able to be done without. in- negates the whole thing. So indispensable is not able to be done without, that is, absolutely necessary.

The synonym set is essential, vital, crucial and requisite. The antonym set is dispensable, expendable, optional and superfluous — and SSC drew option (a) straight out of the second list.

Because the word is underlined inside a sentence, the sentence's tone is a free check. This one is praise, so the answer has to be a positive word, which rules out optional before you even parse the prefix.

Key facts

Indispensable means absolutely necessary, or unable to be done without.
It is in- plus dispensable, from the phrasal verb dispense with, meaning to manage without.
The spelling ends in -able, not -ible: indispensable.

Study next

Negative prefixes in-, im-, ir- and il- and which stems each attaches toThe -able against -ible ending: indispensable, permissible, accessibleThe necessity ladder: needed, essential, vital, crucial, imperative

Common traps

Reading only the stem dispensable and choosing optional.
Choosing functional because both words sound like practical praise.
Writing indispensible when you have to spell the word yourself.

Here the word is underlined inside a sentence, which gives you tone as a second check. Compare the bare-word version at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1 (Obstinate, keyed Stubborn), where no sentence helps you at all.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.