SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 13 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.

Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'A state of temporary disuse or suspension'.

(a)Intermission
(b)Recess
(c)Abeyance
(d)Dormancy

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Abeyance means a state of temporary disuse or suspension, which is exactly the phrase in the stem.

It is used for rules, plans, rights or claims that are set aside for now but not cancelled: 'the plan was held in abeyance pending funding'.

The definition turns on state, temporary and disuse, and abeyance is the word that carries all three → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Intermission — Intermission is an interval between the parts of a play, film or concert. It is a scheduled break in a performance, not a state of disuse.
(b)
Recess — Recess is a period when a parliament, court or school stops its sittings, or a niche in a wall. It names a break in proceedings, not a thing kept out of use.
(d)
Dormancy — Dormancy is temporary inactivity in a living thing or natural feature: a seed, an animal in hibernation, a volcano. It describes a sleeping state, not a rule or right set aside.

Concept

A one-word substitute item gives a definition and asks for the word that matches it exactly. Near-synonyms are the distractors, so test every part of the definition.

Here the parts are temporary, disuse and suspension. Recess and Intermission are temporary breaks, and Dormancy is temporary inactivity, but none of them means a thing kept out of use.

Learn abeyance through its phrases: in abeyance, held in abeyance, fall into abeyance.

Dormancy comes closest because it is also temporary. The difference is what each word describes: dormancy is inactivity in something alive or natural, while abeyance is the suspension of an arrangement such as a rule, plan or claim.

Key facts

Abeyance means a state of temporary disuse or suspension.
It is used in phrases such as held in abeyance and fall into abeyance.
Desuetude is the state of no longer being used, as when a law falls into desuetude.
Dormancy is temporary inactivity, said of seeds, animals and volcanoes.

Study next

Disuse words: abeyance, desuetude and obsolescenceBreak words and where each applies: recess, intermission, interval and hiatusInactivity words: dormant, latent and quiescent

Common traps

Choosing Dormancy because it also means temporary inactivity, without checking the 'disuse or suspension' part
Choosing Recess because a recess suspends work, when it names a period of break, not a state

The definition is printed inside quotation marks after 'one-word substitute for:'.

A sibling item sits at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.6: 'A state of disuse or inactivity', keyed Desuetude. The word temporary is what separates this definition from that one.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: One-word substitution — all 125 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.