SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 1 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-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: NEBULOUS

(a)Vague
(b)Precise
(c)Obvious
(d)Clear

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Nebulous means hazy or ill-defined: an idea, plan or memory with no clear outline.

Vague means the same — not clearly expressed, known or thought out. Both are adjectives, so sense and form match → option (a).

The root is a memory hook. Nebulous is built on Latin nebula, 'mist' or 'cloud', the word astronomers use for a cloud of gas and dust in space.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Precise — Precise means exact and sharply defined, the opposite pole from nebulous. A nebulous plan is one that has not been made precise.
(c)
Obvious — Obvious means easily seen or understood. Nebulous describes something hard to make out, so obvious stands against it, not beside it.
(d)
Clear — Clear is a direct antonym: easy to see or understand, with no haze. It is tempting because it names the quality at stake, but it points the wrong way.

Concept

A synonym item is decided by the word's core sense. Nebulous began as a physical word, cloudy or hazy, and is also used of ideas: a nebulous plan, a nebulous sense of unease. Either way the core is no sharp outline.

The options split three to one. Precise, Obvious and Clear all sit at the sharp, easy-to-see end. Vague is the lone option at the hazy end, beside nebulous.

Key facts

Nebulous means hazy, vague or ill-defined.
It is built on Latin nebula, 'mist' or 'cloud'.
In astronomy a nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in space.
Precise, obvious and clear are all antonyms of nebulous.

Study next

Near-synonyms of vague: hazy, indistinct, ill-defined, amorphousAntonyms at the sharp end: precise, lucid, well-defined, explicit

Common traps

Choosing Clear because it names the quality in question, without checking which way it points

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

Nebulous itself is a wrong option at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.24, a cloze where it sits beside indistinct and vague and the blank is keyed clearest.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Synonyms — all 112 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.