SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 1 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. Customary

(a)Protection
(b)Habitual
(c)Fashion
(d)Unusual

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Customary means done by long-standing habit or convention — what usually happens. The axis being tested is therefore frequency: usual against not usual.

Unusual sits at the far end of that axis: not customary, not the ordinary practice. Option (d) reverses the word instead of merely shading it, which is what an ANTONYM instruction wants.

Customary is an adjective, and unusual is an adjective, so the form matches as well as the sense.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Protection — Protection answers a different question — safe from what — while customary is about how often something is done. An antonym has to sit on the same scale as the given word.
(b)
Habitual — Habitual is a synonym, not an antonym: what is habitual is done by settled practice, which is what customary already means. It is the option that catches a candidate who reads the word correctly and the instruction carelessly.
(c)
Fashion — Fashion is a noun naming a prevailing style, where the given word is an adjective. Read loosely it is nearer to what is current than to the opposite of usual.

Concept

An antonym item is decided by the core sense of the word, not by how negative or positive it feels. Customary is built on the noun custom — a practice repeated until it becomes expected.

Name the axis first. Here it is frequency, so the answer must mean not usual. Options on some other axis fall away at once: protection is about safety, fashion is about style.

Then check the part of speech. The given word is an adjective, and the keyed opposite is an adjective too — unusual.

Option (b) Habitual is a synonym of the given word planted inside an antonym set. It is worth a second's pause, because if you read the instruction as SYNONYM it looks exactly right.

Key facts

Customary means established by custom, or usual practice.
Unusual is its direct opposite: not commonly done or occurring.
Habitual means done by regular habit, which makes it a synonym of customary.
SSC prints the instruction word ANTONYM in capitals in this item.

Study next

Adjective antonyms on the frequency axis, such as customary against unusualWord families built from a noun root, such as custom giving customarySeparating the near-synonym trap from the keyed antonym in a four-option set

Common traps

Marking Habitual because it matches the given word instead of opposing it
Reading the instruction as SYNONYM when the paper prints ANTONYM
Choosing a noun such as Fashion when the given word is an adjective

SSC prints a single word with the instruction ANTONYM and four one-word options, at least one of them a synonym of the given word.

The same one-word frame is used at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.5 (Risible, keyed Serious) and 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.14 (Brittle, keyed Resilient).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.