SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 9 of 99

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 most appropriate antonym of the given word. Transitory

(a)Fleeting
(b)Eternal
(c)Momentary
(d)Temporary

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Transitory means lasting only a short time, not permanent. Its antonym must mean lasting for ever.

Eternal means without end, lasting for ever: the opposite in duration.

Fleeting, Momentary and Temporary all mean short-lived, so they are synonyms of transitory, not antonyms → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Fleeting — Fleeting means passing quickly, as in a fleeting glance. It is a synonym of transitory, the wrong direction for an antonym item.
(c)
Momentary — Momentary means lasting a moment. It points the same way as transitory, so it is a synonym, not an antonym.
(d)
Temporary — Temporary means lasting for a limited time, the same sense as transitory. Picking it answers a synonym question the stem did not ask.

Concept

Transitory comes from Latin transitorius, from transire, "to go across", the root of transit and transition. Something transitory passes and does not stay.

Its synonyms: fleeting, momentary, temporary, transient, ephemeral, short-lived. Its antonyms: eternal, everlasting, permanent, perpetual, enduring.

Here three options agree with one another and with transitory. The odd one out, Eternal, is the antonym.

In an antonym item the synonyms are the traps. Read the instruction before matching meanings: here it asks for the opposite.

Key facts

Transitory: not permanent, lasting only a short time.
It comes from Latin transitorius, from transire, "to go across".
Synonyms: fleeting, momentary, temporary, transient, ephemeral.
Antonyms: eternal, everlasting, permanent, perpetual.

Study next

Duration antonym pairs: ephemeral and perennial, transient and permanentWords from Latin transire: transit, transition, transient

Common traps

Answering as if the stem asked for a synonym and picking Temporary or Fleeting

Here the given word comes with three of its synonyms and one antonym. 16 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.2 is built the same way: the antonym of Incessant is keyed Intermittent, with Constant, Ceaseless and Perpetual as wrong options.

Its near-synonym ephemeral is asked as a meaning at 21 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.5, keyed Transient.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Antonyms — all 137 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.