SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 99

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 given word. Intelligible

(a)Incoherent
(b)Deliberate
(c)Scriptable
(d)Embezzle

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Intelligible means able to be understood, so its opposite must be a word for speech or writing that cannot be followed.

Incoherent is that word: disjointed, not hanging together, impossible to make sense of. An incoherent account is precisely one that is not intelligible — option (a).

The textbook opposite, unintelligible, is not printed. Among the four given, only incoherent denies understanding, and an antonym item asks for the nearest available opposite rather than the perfect one.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Deliberate — Deliberate means done on purpose, and its opposite is accidental. Whether something was intended has no bearing on whether it can be understood.
(c)
Scriptable — Scriptable means able to be written as a script, used mostly of software. It shares a technical look with intelligible and nothing of its meaning.
(d)
Embezzle — Embezzle is a verb meaning to steal money placed in your trust. It is not even the same part of speech as intelligible, which is an adjective.

Concept

Intelligible comes from Latin intelligere, to understand — the root behind intelligent, intellect and intelligence. It describes a message that can be grasped.

Coherent comes from cohaerere, to stick together (co- plus haerere, to cling). So incoherent literally means not holding together, and thoughts that do not hold together cannot be understood.

That is the bridge the item is built on: one word denies understanding directly, the other denies the connectedness that makes understanding possible.

Antonym sets rarely print the textbook opposite. When the direct un- form is absent, the task shifts to finding the option that most nearly denies the given sense.

Key facts

Intelligible means able to be understood.
Incoherent means not holding together, so it cannot be followed.
Coherent comes from Latin cohaerere, to stick together.

Study next

The Latin root intelligere behind intelligent, intellect and intelligibleThe cohere family: coherent, cohesive, cohesion, incoherentAntonym items where the direct un- or in- form is missing from the options

Common traps

Waiting for unintelligible and then guessing once it is not on the list.
Confusing intelligible (able to be understood) with intelligent (clever).
Reading scriptable as a real opposite because it sounds technical.

SSC prints the bare word with four options and no sentence, so the root is the only clue available.

Incoherent appears on the other side of the same design at 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.3, where it is a wrong option against the antonym of 'Hostile'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.