Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word. Perfidious

Correct — C. Perfidious means deceitful and untrustworthy: someone who betrays the faith placed in them.

The opposite is a person who keeps that faith. Loyal means firm in allegiance to a person or cause. Both words are adjectives, at the two ends of the same trust scale → option (c).

Betraying, Faithless and Treacherous all mean much the same as perfidious, so the set is built from synonyms around a single antonym.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Betraying — Betraying is what a perfidious person does, so it is a synonym, not an opposite. It is also a verb form, a present participle, rather than a plain adjective.
• (b)
  Faithless — Faithless means disloyal or breaking faith, a close synonym of perfidious. Its -less ending makes it look like a negation, but the word it negates is faith, not perfidy.
• (d)
  Treacherous — Treacherous means guilty of betrayal, a synonym of perfidious rather than its opposite. It is the key when the same word is asked as a synonym at English Q.1.

An antonym item asks for the word at the opposite pole of the same scale. Perfidious sits on the trust scale, at the betraying end.

Here the options split three to one. Betraying, Faithless and Treacherous all stand at the betraying end with perfidious. Loyal is the lone word at the keeping-faith end.

A quick check: put each option in 'a ___ friend'. A treacherous friend and a faithless friend say what a perfidious friend says. A loyal friend says the reverse.

Key facts

• Loyal means giving firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or cause.
• Perfidious, faithless and treacherous all describe breaking faith.
• The noun of perfidious is perfidy, and the noun of loyal is loyalty.

Common traps

• Choosing Faithless because its -less ending looks like the negation an antonym item wants
• Carrying Treacherous across from the synonym item on the same word at English Q.1

No directly related past PYQ was found.