SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 5 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.

Spot the correct spelling of a happy accident adjective.

(a)Serendipitous
(b)Serendipidous
(c)Serendipitios
(d)Serendipetous

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The adjective is built from serendipity, a happy accident. Drop the final y and add -ous:

serendipit(y) + ous = serendipitous

So after serendip come the letters i, t, then the -ous ending. Only Serendipitous has all of them → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Serendipidous — Serendipidous writes d where the root has t. Serendipity is spelt with a t, and the adjective keeps it.
(c)
Serendipitios — Serendipitios gets the root right but garbles the ending. The adjective suffix is -ous, as in famous and ambitious, not -ios.
(d)
Serendipetous — Serendipetous puts an e after the p. The root is serendip-i-ty, so the vowel after p is i.

Concept

Build a derived word from its root. Serendipity ends in -ity, and the adjective replaces the final y with -ous. The same step turns calamity into calamitous and ubiquity into ubiquitous.

Horace Walpole coined serendipity in a 1754 letter, after the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes kept finding things they were not looking for. Serendip is an old name for Sri Lanka.

The stem's clue, a happy accident adjective, is the paper's own wording. It points to serendipity, a fortunate discovery made by chance.

Key facts

Serendipitous means occurring or discovered by happy chance.
It is serendipity with the final y replaced by -ous.
Horace Walpole coined serendipity in 1754, from the tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
Serendip is an old name for Sri Lanka.

Study next

-ity nouns that make -itous adjectives, such as calamitous, ubiquitous and felicitousWords coined from literature, such as quixotic and utopiaNear-synonyms for chance, such as fortuitous and providential

Common traps

Writing d for t, because a t between vowels can sound like a d in speech
Getting the root right and then misspelling the -ous ending

Here a short definition names the word and the four options differ by a letter or two. The same format is asked at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.5 (Trisomy) and 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.5 (Proprioception).

Felicitous, another -ity to -itous adjective, is asked as a synonym at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.1.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Spelling — all 84 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.