SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 5 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.

Spot the correct spelling of a lab toxicity assay term.

(a)Cytotoxisity
(b)Cytotoxicity
(c)Cytotoxicety
(d)Cytotoxcity

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Build the word from its parts: cyto- (cell) + toxic + -ity.

toxic + -ity = toxicity, as electric + -ity = electricity.
cyto- + toxicity = Cytotoxicity, the quality of being toxic to cells → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Cytotoxisity — -isity replaces the c of toxic with s. The root keeps its c when -ity is added, even though that c now sounds like s.
(c)
Cytotoxicety — -icety swaps the suffix -ity for -ety. Toxic + -ity can only give -icity.
(d)
Cytotoxcity — toxc drops the i of toxic. Keep the whole root, toxic, before adding -ity.

Concept

When -ity is added to an adjective ending in -ic, the c stays and the ending becomes -icity: toxic → toxicity, elastic → elasticity, authentic → authenticity.

Before i, the c is soft and sounds like s. That sound is what tempts the misspelling -isity, so spell from the root, not from the sound.

The stem calls it 'a lab toxicity assay term': a cytotoxicity assay tests how far a substance damages or kills cells.

Key facts

cyto- means cell, as in cytoplasm and cytology.
Adjectives ending in -ic take -ity as -icity: toxic → toxicity, elastic → elasticity.
Cytotoxicity: the quality of being toxic to cells.

Study next

Splitting long scientific terms into prefix, root and suffix before spelling themThe -ic + -ity pattern: elasticity, authenticity, specificityOther cyto- words: cytoplasm, cytology, cytochrome

Common traps

Spelling by sound: the soft c of -icity sounds like s and produces -isity.
Dropping the i of toxic when the word gets long, as in toxcity.

Spelling is set here as a described term with four near-identical spellings. The same cyto- prefix is tested at 13 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.5 (an electron-transport protein, keyed Cytochrome).

The same format also appears at 12 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.5, keyed Psychopharmacology.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Spelling — all 118 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.