SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 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 sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The nobleman received a ceremonial fief from the sovereign.

(a)The farmer leased the fief to a local tenant.
(b)The law student confused fief with deed transfer.
(c)The engineer calibrated the hydraulic fief for flow control.
(d)The archives recorded the transfer of fief in Latin.

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
A homonym is the same word used in a different meaning.

In the prompt, a fief is land a lord grants in return for loyalty and service. Options (a), (b) and (d) keep that sense: a fief leased to a tenant, a fief as a form of legal holding, a fief transferred.

Option (c) is the sentence where fief cannot mean feudal land: a "hydraulic fief for flow control". It is the setter's homonym, and the key takes option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The farmer leased the fief to a local tenant. — leased the fief to a local tenant is still feudal land: a holding let out to someone who works it. Same meaning, so not a homonym.
(b)
The law student confused fief with deed transfer. — confused fief with deed transfer treats fief as a form of land tenure, which is the prompt's meaning, not a different one.
(d)
The archives recorded the transfer of fief in Latin. — the transfer of fief in Latin refers to recorded grants of feudal land, the same sense as the nobleman's ceremonial fief.

Concept

Homonyms share a spelling or sound but differ in meaning: the bank of a river and a bank that holds money. Define the word in the prompt first, then test each option against that definition.

The prompt's fief is land held from a lord in return for homage and service. Three options fit that definition and one does not.

Wiktionary's entry for fief lists three senses: feudal land, and figuratively an estate or a domain someone controls. None is a machine part.

The sentence in option (c) is built for this question. Learn the answer as "the one sentence not about feudal land", not as a new meaning of fief.

Key facts

Fief: land held from a lord in return for homage and service, especially military service.
Figurative fief: an area someone controls, such as an official's department.
Homonym test: define the prompt's word, then find the option where that definition fails.

Study next

Feudal vocabulary: vassal, fealty, homage, fiefdomHomonyms, homophones and homographsFigurative senses of historical words, such as fiefdom and baron

Common traps

Picking the law-student sentence because confused suggests a different meaning, when the fief itself is still land tenure
Treating "hydraulic fief" as a real technical term and memorising it

18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.13 uses a genuine second meaning: the bishop's mitre against a welder's mitre joint, keyed option (a).

14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.13 is built like this one: three sentences keep the armour sense of pauldron, and the keyed option (c) puts it in a biology lab.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Homonyms and confusables — all 29 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.