Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word. Obdurate

Correct — B. Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to change your mind, and in a second sense hard-hearted.

Its Latin root is durus, 'hard', as in durable. An obdurate person will not give way.

The question asks for the antonym, so you need someone who does give way: yielding → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Callous — Callous means unfeeling, showing cruel disregard for others. That matches obdurate's hard-hearted sense, so it is a synonym, not the opposite.
• (c)
  Adamant — Adamant means refusing to be persuaded or to change a decision. That is obdurate's main sense, so it is a synonym.
• (d)
  Hardened — Hardened means made hard, unfeeling or set in one's ways. It is close to a translation of Latin obdurare, 'to harden', so it is a synonym.

This is an antonym item, and all three wrong options are synonyms of the given word. Knowing what obdurate means is not enough; you also have to read the instruction and flip direction.

Obdurate has two linked senses: stubborn, refusing to change, and hard-hearted, unmoved by pity. Callous matches the second, adamant the first, and hardened is the literal 'made hard' behind both.

Yielding means giving way to pressure or persuasion, the reverse of both.

Key facts

• Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion, and can also mean hard-hearted.
• Its root is Latin durus, 'hard', which also gives durable and endure.
• Synonyms of obdurate: obstinate, adamant, unyielding, intransigent.
• Antonyms of obdurate: yielding, compliant, pliant, flexible.

Common traps

• Picking adamant or hardened because they are the words you associate with obdurate, on an item that asks for the opposite
• Knowing obdurate only as stubborn, and so missing that callous matches its hard-hearted sense

No directly related past PYQ was found.