SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 2 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.

Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word: CORUSCATE

(a)Blur
(b)Dim
(c)Sparkle
(d)Fade

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Coruscate means to give off flashes of light, to glitter or sparkle. Light that coruscates flickers brightly, like sunlight on water.

That is exactly the sense of Sparkle → option (c).

Blur, Dim and Fade all describe brightness or sharpness being lost, the reverse of the flashing that coruscate names.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Blur — Blur means to make or become unclear and indistinct. It is about outlines losing sharpness, while coruscate is about light flashing brightly.
(b)
Dim — Dim means to make or become less bright. It is close to the opposite of coruscate, whose light flashes out rather than weakening.
(d)
Fade — Fade means to lose brightness, colour or strength gradually. Coruscating light does the reverse: it flashes out brightly.

Concept

Coruscate comes from Latin coruscare, to vibrate or glitter. Its first sense is literal: to flash or sparkle, said of light, jewels or water.

Its second sense is figurative. Brilliant, flashing talk is coruscating, as in coruscating wit.

It belongs to a family of light words: scintillate, glitter, gleam, effulgent and refulgent. All of them name brightness.

The three wrong options all describe something growing less clear or less bright. Once you know that coruscate means brightness flashing out, direction alone decides the item.

Key facts

Coruscate means to flash or sparkle, said of light.
Figuratively, coruscating means brilliant and flashing, as in coruscating wit.
It comes from Latin coruscare, to vibrate or glitter.
Scintillate, glitter and gleam are its near synonyms.

Study next

Brightness words: scintillate, effulgent, refulgent and resplendentTheir opposites: dim, dull and lacklustreScintillating and coruscating used figuratively for brilliant talk or wit

Common traps

Linking coruscate with corrode or corrosive because of the shared cor- sound, and reaching for a word about decline
Picking Blur because it is the least negative-sounding of the three loss words, without checking direction

Here the word comes bare, in capitals, with one brightness word against three words for losing clarity or light, so knowing the direction is enough.

The same light family also appears at 19 Sep 2025, 9:00, English Q.3, an antonym item on Refulgent keyed Dull.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.