SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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 antonym of the given word. Extirpate

(a)Exterminate
(b)Establish
(c)Uproot
(d)Eradicate

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Extirpate means to root out and destroy completely — a pest, a practice, a disease. Its opposite is to set something up and make it last.

Establish means to set up on a firm, lasting basis, so it points the other way → option (b).

The root shows the sense: Latin ex-, 'out', plus stirps, 'stem' or 'root'.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Exterminate — Exterminate means to destroy completely, as with pests. It is a synonym of extirpate, and the instruction asks for an antonym.
(c)
Uproot — Uproot is the literal sense of extirpate: pull out by the roots. A synonym, so it cannot be the antonym.
(d)
Eradicate — Eradicate is built the same way, from Latin e-, 'out', plus radix, 'root'. It means root out, which makes it a synonym.

Concept

This antonym item hides the answer among three synonyms. Exterminate, Uproot and Eradicate all mean destroy or remove completely, so none of them can be the opposite.

When three options agree with each other, test the fourth against the instruction first. Establish means to set up and make firm, the reverse of wiping out.

Extirpate and eradicate are twins: both are Latin for 'root out'.

In ecology, extirpated describes a species wiped out in one area while it survives elsewhere.

Key facts

Extirpate means to root out or destroy completely.
It comes from Latin exstirpare, from ex-, 'out', and stirps, 'stem' or 'root'.
Eradicate comes from Latin e-, 'out', and radix, 'root'.
Establish means to set up on a firm or lasting basis.

Study next

Latin root words: radix (eradicate, radical) and stirps (extirpate)Antonyms of destroy: establish, found, institute, implant

Common traps

Answering as if it were a synonym item, since three options mean wipe out
Confusing extirpate with extricate, which means to free from a difficulty

Here three synonyms of the given word stand against one antonym.

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.2 (Erudite, keyed Uninformed against Scholarly, Learned and Intellectual) and 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.2 (Placatory, keyed Aggravating against Pacifying, Soothing and Conciliatory) are built the same way.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Antonyms — all 114 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.