SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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.

Choose the correct one-word substitution for: 'A person who opposes official policy'.

(a)Activist
(b)Agitator
(c)Dissident
(d)Atheist

Answer

Why

Correct — C. A dissident is a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state.

The trigger is official policy. A dissident stands against the state or ruling authority itself; the other words describe someone who campaigns, stirs up a crowd, or rejects belief in God.

The word comes from Latin dissidere, 'to sit apart, disagree' → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Activist — Activist is broader: a person who campaigns for political or social change. An activist may campaign for a policy as readily as against one, so opposition is not built in.
(b)
Agitator — Agitator names someone who urges others to protest or rebel. Its defining act is rousing other people, not holding a position against official policy.
(d)
Atheist — Atheist is about religion, not the state: a person who does not believe in God. It is the key for exactly that phrase at 24 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10.

Concept

One-word substitutes are decided by the defining element of the phrase. Here it is opposes official policy: a stance against those in power.

Activist and Agitator are near neighbours, both political. The difference is what each word centres on. An activist campaigns, for or against. An agitator stirs up others. A dissident disagrees with authority and says so.

Dissident comes from Latin dissidere, dis- 'apart' plus sedere 'to sit'. Dissent looks like its root but comes from a different verb, dissentire, 'to differ in feeling'. The two words are close in meaning, not in origin.

Key facts

A dissident is a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state.
It comes from Latin dissidere, 'to sit apart, disagree'.
An agitator is a person who urges others to protest or rebel.
An activist is a person who campaigns for political or social change.

Study next

One-word substitutes for opponents of authority: dissident, rebel, insurgent, hereticBelief words that are easy to confuse: atheist, agnostic, theist, heretic

Common traps

Choosing Activist because activists protest too, without checking that the phrase names opposition to official policy
Choosing Agitator because it sounds political, when its core is stirring up others

17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.8 asks the one-word substitute for a belief that goes against established doctrine and keys Heresy, the religious counterpart of dissent.

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.9 puts dissent in a sentence and keys quell as the verb that suppresses it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: One-word substitution — all 91 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.