SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 1 of 99

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 13 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 synonym of the given word: HAPHAZARD

(a)Organized
(b)Intentional
(c)Random
(d)Planned

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Haphazard describes something done with no plan, order or principle, left to chance.

Random carries the same sense: made or chosen without method or conscious decision. 'Files stacked haphazardly' and 'files stacked at random' say the same thing.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Organized — Organized is the opposite: arranged according to a plan or system. Haphazard means exactly that system is missing.
(b)
Intentional — Intentional means done on purpose. A haphazard act follows no deliberate design, so this reverses the meaning.
(d)
Planned — Planned means worked out in advance, the very thing a haphazard effort lacks. It is an antonym, not a synonym.

Concept

A synonym item tests the word's core meaning. Here that core is the absence of a plan.

Organized, Intentional and Planned all describe order or purpose, which is what haphazard lacks. They are opposites. Random is the one option that shares the sense of no plan.

Haphazard has nothing to do with danger. Both halves once meant chance: hap as in happen and mishap, and hazard, first the name of a game of chance played with dice.

Key facts

Haphazard: lacking any plan, order or organising principle.
Random: made or chosen without method or conscious decision.
Haphazard joins hap (chance, luck) and hazard (originally a dice game of chance).
Antonyms of haphazard: organised, systematic, methodical, planned.

Study next

Near-synonyms of haphazard and how they differ: arbitrary, slapdash, desultoryAntonyms of disorder: systematic, methodical, meticulousWords built on hap: happen, mishap, hapless

Common traps

Linking haphazard to danger because of the word hazard — the word is about chance, not risk.
Reading 'synonym' as 'antonym' — three options here are opposites of haphazard, so that slip lands on a wrong answer.

A bare capitalised word with opposites planted among the options.

The same shape is also asked 17 Sep 2025, 9:00, English Q.1 (LUMINOUS, keyed Radiant, with Dull and Dim among the decoys) and 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.2 (CORUSCATE, keyed Sparkle, with Dim and Fade among the decoys).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Synonyms — all 129 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.