SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · 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. Soporific

(a)Stimulating
(b)Drowsy
(c)Sleep-inducing
(d)Sedative

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Soporific means tending to cause sleep: a soporific drug, a soporific lecture.

Its opposite is whatever wakes you up and sharpens attention. Stimulating means raising activity or arousing interest, so it points the other way → option (a).

The root is Latin sopor, 'sleep', plus -fic, 'making'. Soporific is literally sleep-making.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Drowsy — Drowsy is the state a soporific thing produces, and dictionaries also give soporific the sense 'sleepy, drowsy'. It sits on the same side as the given word.
(c)
Sleep-inducing — Sleep-inducing is a plain-English definition of soporific, so it is a synonym. An antonym question needs the option pointing away from sleep.
(d)
Sedative — Sedative means calming or inducing sleep, and names a drug that does so. Soporific is also a noun for such a drug, so the two are synonyms.

Concept

Sort the options before choosing. Drowsy, Sleep-inducing and Sedative all sit on the sleep side of the scale. Stimulating alone points away from sleep.

The word itself can be decoded: sopor, Latin for 'sleep', and -fic, 'making', the ending of horrific and prolific.

Something sleep-making has a clear opposite in something that rouses you, which is what stimulating means.

Both words work on body and mind. A soporific drug and a soporific speech both bring on sleep; a stimulating drink such as coffee and a stimulating discussion both wake you up. The pair are opposites at either level.

Key facts

Soporific means tending to induce drowsiness or sleep.
As a noun, a soporific is a drug or other agent that induces sleep.
It comes from Latin sopor, 'sleep', with the suffix -fic, 'making'.
Stimulating means raising physical or mental activity, or arousing interest.

Study next

Sleep-and-lethargy vocabulary: somnolent, torpid, lethargic, languidAdjectives in -fic meaning 'making': horrific, prolific, pacificOpposites of soporific: stimulating, invigorating, rousing

Common traps

Picking Drowsy as the opposite because it describes the sleeper rather than the cause, when it still sits on the sleep side
Treating 'antonym' as 'synonym' and choosing Sleep-inducing, the plainest definition in the set

23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.3 asks the antonym of Lethargic from the same scale and keys Active, with Languid as a wrong option.

English Q.2 of this paper (Obsequious, keyed Assertive) uses the same frame: three options agree with the given word and one opposes it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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