SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 substitute for: 'A state of mental weariness and lack of enthusiasm'.

(a)Languor
(b)Ennui
(c)Torpor
(d)Tedium

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Ennui is weariness and dissatisfaction that come from having nothing interesting to do: boredom with a listless, world-weary edge.

The definition asks for a state of mind, mental weariness plus a lack of enthusiasm. Ennui is exactly that pairing → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Languor — Languor is tiredness or inertia, often of a pleasant, dreamy kind. It lacks the joyless loss of interest that 'lack of enthusiasm' describes.
(c)
Torpor — Torpor is sluggish inactivity, physical or mental; in animals it names a state of lowered metabolism. It stresses inertness, not a lack of enthusiasm.
(d)
Tedium — Tedium is the dull, drawn-out quality of a task or a stretch of time, as in the tedium of a long queue. It names the cause of the weariness, not the mood.

Concept

One-word substitution rewards precision among near-synonyms. All four options belong to the same family of dullness and fatigue, so match each part of the definition.

Mental weariness and lack of enthusiasm together describe a mood: bored, listless, dissatisfied. Languor and torpor lean towards inertia, and tedium towards the dull thing itself, so ennui is the closest fit.

Languor and torpor overlap with the definition, since both can describe mental sluggishness. Ennui wins because its core is the listless dissatisfaction that 'lack of enthusiasm' names.

Key facts

Ennui is weariness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.
Languor is tiredness or inertia, often of a pleasant, dreamy kind.
Torpor is physical or mental inactivity, and in animals a state of lowered metabolism.
Tedium is the quality of being tedious: dull, long and tiring.

Study next

Near-synonyms of boredom and fatigue, such as apathy, lethargy, lassitude and listlessnessThe adjective forms languid, torpid and tediousFrench borrowings for moods, such as malaise and joie de vivre

Common traps

Picking Tedium because the definition sounds like boredom, when tedium is the dull task and ennui the mood it produces
Picking Torpor or Languor on 'weariness' alone, without weighing 'lack of enthusiasm'

Here all four options come from the same family of dullness and fatigue, so the wording of the definition decides.

A close cousin, Apathy, is keyed for 'Lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern' at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.10. Languid, the adjective of languor, is a wrong option at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.3 (antonym of Lethargic, keyed Active).

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.6 frames its definition the same way, 'A state of disuse or inactivity' (keyed Desuetude).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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