Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'One who eats human flesh'.

Correct — A. A cannibal is a person who eats human flesh. More broadly, the word covers any creature that eats others of its own kind.

The definition turns on human, and cannibal is the option that carries it. Cannibal → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Herbivore — Herbivore is an animal that eats plants. The definition is about eating flesh, and human flesh at that.
• (c)
  Carnivore — Carnivore eats flesh, but any flesh. The definition narrows it to human flesh, which carnivore does not say.
• (d)
  Omnivore — Omnivore eats both plants and animals. It describes a mixed diet and says nothing about human flesh.

One-word substitution asks for the single word that carries a whole phrase. Here the deciding word is human.

The -vore words sort animals by diet: herbivore (plants), carnivore (flesh), omnivore (both). Cannibal sorts by something else: eating your own kind.

Key facts

• Cannibal: a person who eats human flesh, or any organism that eats its own kind.
• Herbivore eats plants, carnivore eats flesh, omnivore eats both.
• The -vore words come from Latin vorare, to devour.
• Anthropophagy is a formal word for the eating of human flesh.

Common traps

• Choosing carnivore because it means flesh-eating, and missing that the definition says human flesh

No directly related past PYQ was found.