SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 2 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. Obsequious

(a)Assertive
(b)Submissive
(c)Flattering
(d)Servile

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Obsequious means eager to please to a servile degree: fawning, flattering, always deferring to someone more powerful.

The opposite pole is a person who states their own view and stands by it. That is Assertive, confident and forthright rather than deferential → option (a).

Submissive, Flattering and Servile each describe part of obsequious behaviour, so Assertive is the lone option on the opposite side.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Submissive — Submissive means ready to give in to the authority of others. That is the deferring half of obsequious, a near-synonym rather than an opposite.
(c)
Flattering — Flattering is how an obsequious person talks: excessive, often insincere praise of the powerful. It belongs to the word's meaning, so it cannot be its antonym.
(d)
Servile — Servile means excessively willing to serve or please. Oxford's definition of obsequious uses the word servile itself, so it is a synonym, not an antonym.

Concept

An antonym item asks for the option on the opposite side of the given word. Start by fixing what obsequious means: excessive eagerness to please, shown by flattery and deference.

Now sort the options. Submissive, Flattering and Servile each describe a piece of that behaviour, so they sit with the word. Assertive describes the person who does not defer.

The word comes from Latin obsequium, 'compliance', built on sequi, 'to follow'. The obsequious person follows; the assertive one speaks for themselves.

Assertive is not a perfect mirror of obsequious. Obsequious is about excess, assertive about confidence. This item offers no exact opposite, so the task is to pick the option nearest the other pole.

Key facts

Obsequious means obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.
It comes from Latin obsequium, 'compliance', from sequi, 'to follow'.
Servile means having an excessive willingness to serve or please others.
Assertive means having or showing a confident and forceful personality.

Study next

Synonyms of obsequious: sycophantic, fawning, servile, toadyingAntonym pairs on the deference scale, such as meek and bold, timid and daringOther words built on Latin sequi, 'to follow': sequence, consequence, subsequent

Common traps

Reading 'antonym' as 'synonym' and picking Servile, the closest synonym in the set
Guessing from the look of the word, since obsequious resembles obvious and obscure but shares neither meaning

The same antonym frame, with three options on the given word's side, is used at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.2 (Placatory, keyed Aggravating) and at English Q.3 of this paper (Soporific, keyed Stimulating).

17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.1 works the deference scale from the other end: Rebellious, keyed Disobedient, with Submissive as a wrong option.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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