SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 18 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.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

American Heritage and Wiktionary record galloon only as a trimming, so no option holds a true homonym; the key can only be read as picking the one sentence where the word cannot mean a braid, and this card follows it.

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The altar cloth bore a crimson galloon border.

(a)The seamstress embroidered a metallic galloon on the vestment.
(b)The merchant exported galloon rolls to ecclesiastical suppliers.
(c)The nutritionist prescribed a galloon for boosting metabolism.
(d)The pall was edged with fine silk galloon.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. In the stem, galloon is a trimming: a braid used to border cloth, here the crimson edge of an altar cloth.

Sentences (a), (b) and (d) keep that sense: a metallic galloon embroidered on a vestment, galloon rolls sold to church suppliers, a pall edged with silk galloon.

Sentence (c) has a nutritionist prescribe a galloon for metabolism, where a braid cannot fit. That is the sentence the key marks → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The seamstress embroidered a metallic galloon on the vestment. — A metallic galloon embroidered on a vestment is braid worked in metal thread on a church garment. Same word, same sense as the stem's border.
(b)
The merchant exported galloon rolls to ecclesiastical suppliers. — Galloon rolls are lengths of the braid, sold by the roll to suppliers of church goods. The word still names the trimming, only as trade goods.
(d)
The pall was edged with fine silk galloon. — Edged with fine silk galloon is the stem's own use: a pall, the heavy cloth laid over a coffin, trimmed along its edge with braid.

Concept

A homonym shares its spelling and sound with a word of unrelated meaning: a stern warning, and the stern of a ship.

Here every option repeats galloon, so spelling cannot help. Fix what the stem's word means, then look for the sentence where that meaning cannot hold.

Galloon is a narrow band or braid used as trimming, commonly of lace, metallic thread or embroidery. Wiktionary traces it to French galon, from galonner, 'to braid'.

American Heritage and Wiktionary record galloon only as a trimming or braid. Neither gives a sense a nutritionist could prescribe, so strictly no option holds a true homonym.

The item works by elimination: (a), (b) and (d) are plainly the braid, and (c) is the sentence where that reading fails.

Key facts

Galloon is a narrow band or braid used as trimming, commonly of lace, metallic thread or embroidery.
Wiktionary traces galloon to French galon, from galonner, 'to braid'.
A pall is a heavy cloth laid over a coffin or tomb.
Stern is a true homonym: strict, as in a stern warning, and the rear of a ship.

Study next

True homonym pairs such as stern (strict) and stern (of a ship), or bank (of a river) and bank (for money)Polysemy versus homonymy: related senses of one word, or two unrelated words sharing a formChurch-textile words in this item: vestment, pall, altar cloth

Common traps

Choosing (b) because it is about trade rather than decoration, when galloon rolls are still the braid
Reading galloon in (c) as gallon, the unit of volume: the paper prints galloon in all four sentences

The format with a true homonym appears at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.19, where the stern of the ship is keyed against a stern warning.

At 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.13, basilica is keyed the way galloon is here: the sentence, about a plant, where the stem's building sense cannot work.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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