SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 1 · 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 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word: PERFIDIOUS

(a)Honest
(b)Faithful
(c)Treacherous
(d)Loyal

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Perfidious describes someone who breaks faith: deceitful, untrustworthy, ready to betray the people who rely on them.

Treacherous carries the same charge — guilty of betrayal or deception. Both are adjectives, so sense and form match → option (c).

The root helps if the word is new to you. Perfidious comes from Latin perfidia, 'faithlessness', built on fides, 'faith', the root of fidelity.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Honest — Honest points the other way. An honest person tells the truth and deals fairly, which is exactly what a perfidious person does not do.
(b)
Faithful — Faithful is the direct opposite: it keeps the very faith that perfidious breaks. It is tempting only because it is about the same subject.
(d)
Loyal — Loyal means firm in allegiance to a person or cause, so it is an antonym again. It is the key when the same word is asked as an antonym at English Q.3.

Concept

A synonym item is decided by the word's core sense, and perfidious has one: breach of faith. Its noun is perfidy, meaning treachery or a breach of trust.

Look at how the options divide. Honest, Faithful and Loyal all describe keeping faith, so they stand at the opposite pole. Treacherous is the lone option on the betrayal side.

When three options agree with each other and disagree with the fourth, test which side the given word is on before you pick.

Treacherous has a second, physical sense as well: ground, water or roads that hide danger, as in treacherous roads. The betrayal sense is the one that matches perfidious.

Key facts

Perfidious means deceitful and untrustworthy, guilty of breaking faith.
Its noun is perfidy: treachery, a breach of faith or trust.
It comes from Latin perfidia, 'faithlessness', built on fides, 'faith'.
Honest, faithful and loyal are all antonyms of perfidious.

Study next

Words built on Latin fides, 'faith', such as fidelity, infidel and perfidyNear-synonyms of treacherous, such as duplicitous, disloyal and traitorousAntonym pairs on the loyalty scale, such as perfidious and staunch

Common traps

Picking Faithful or Loyal because they are about faith, without checking which way they point
Mixing this item up with the antonym item on the same word at English Q.3, where Loyal is the key

Here the word is printed in capitals and three of the four options are its antonyms.

12 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.3 asks the antonym of the same word and keys Loyal, with Treacherous as a wrong option. Another Latin-derived -ious adjective is asked as a synonym at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 (Pugnacious, keyed Belligerent).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Synonyms — all 96 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.