SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 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 given word. Profuse

(a)Scarce
(b)Just
(c)Prompt
(d)Humble

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Profuse means present or given in great quantity, as in profuse apologies or profuse bleeding.

Scarce means available in too small a quantity, so it reverses the very dimension profuse measures → option (a).

The word is given bare, with no sentence to fix the sense, so decide what profuse measures first: it is a word about amount, not about manner, honesty or speed.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Just — Just means fair or deserved, and its opposite is unjust. It measures fairness, which is not the dimension profuse is on.
(c)
Prompt — Prompt means quick or on time, and its opposite is late or tardy. Speed has nothing to do with how much of something there is.
(d)
Humble — Humble means modest and unassuming, the opposite of proud. Profuse can sound like an excess of display, but it counts quantity, not pride.

Concept

When a word is given with no sentence around it, name the dimension it measures before you look at the options.

Profuse measures amount. Only one of the four choices measures amount as well, and it measures it in the opposite direction, so it is the answer whatever else the other words mean.

This is the same test that disposes of near-synonyms: a word on a different dimension is neither the synonym nor the antonym, however strong its tone.

Profuse is used both of things that flow, as in profuse bleeding, and of things offered freely, as in profuse thanks. Scarce reverses both uses.

Key facts

Profuse means in great quantity, as in profuse apologies and profuse bleeding.
Scarce means in short supply, the opposite of plentiful or abundant.
Profuse is unrelated to profound, which means deep, despite the shared opening.

Study next

Quantity adjectives and their opposites: abundant, ample, meagre, sparseLook-alike words: profuse, profound, professedDeciding an antonym by dimension when no sentence is given

Common traps

Matching by tone, so profuse as excess pulls you to humble.
Confusing profuse with profound and hunting for shallow.
Rejecting scarce as too plain a word for an SSC answer.

SSC prints the antonym item in two shapes: the word inside a sentence, and the word alone as it is here. The bare form is harder because you must supply the sense yourself.

The sentence form runs at English Q.4, Q.7 and Q.12 of this 26 Sep 2024, 9:00 am sitting.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.