Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'Cancellation of a penalty or debt.'

Correct — B. The definition names two things that can be cancelled: a penalty or a debt. The word must cover both.

Remission does. It is used of cancelling or reducing a penalty, as in remission of a prison sentence, and of releasing a debt or claim.

Acquittal, Reprieve and Pardon are words of offences and punishment, not of debt → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Acquittal — Acquittal is a verdict of not guilty. It clears the accused of the charge, so no penalty is imposed at all, which is not the same as cancelling one.
• (c)
  Reprieve — Reprieve is the close rival: it cancels or postpones a punishment, especially an execution. It has no debt sense, and it can mean only a delay.
• (d)
  Pardon — Pardon forgives an offence and frees the offender from its punishment. It belongs to crimes and wrongs, and is not the word for cancelling a debt.

A one-word substitution item wants the word whose dictionary sense covers the whole definition. Here the definition joins two things with or: a penalty or a debt.

Acquittal, Reprieve and Pardon are words of crime and punishment. At best they answer the penalty half.

Remission covers both: a reduced or cancelled penalty, such as time taken off a prison sentence, and the release of a debt or claim.

Key facts

• Remission can mean the reduction or cancellation of a penalty, such as time taken off a prison sentence.
• It is also used of releasing someone from a debt or claim.
• A reprieve cancels or postpones a punishment, especially an execution.
• An acquittal is a verdict that the accused is not guilty of the charge.

Common traps

• Picking Pardon because it cancels a punishment, without testing it against the word debt
• Picking Reprieve, which can be only a postponement and has no debt sense

No directly related past PYQ was found.