SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 19 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 sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The director gave a stern warning to the cast.

(a)The sailor stood at the stern of the ship.
(b)Her face showed a stern expression.
(c)The teacher’s tone was stern and serious.
(d)His discipline was known to be stern.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. In the given sentence stern is an adjective meaning strict or severe: a stern warning.

In option (a) stern is a noun, the rear part of a ship, the opposite end from the bow. Same spelling, same sound, unrelated meaning: that is a homonym → option (a).

Options (b), (c) and (d) all use the adjective, so each repeats the highlighted word's own meaning.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Her face showed a stern expression. — a stern expression uses the adjective again, meaning severe or unsmiling. That is the sense of the stern warning, so it is the same word, not a homonym.
(c)
The teacher’s tone was stern and serious. — stern and serious describes a tone, and serious beside it confirms the strict, severe sense. It repeats the highlighted meaning instead of giving a new one.
(d)
His discipline was known to be stern. — known to be stern describes his discipline as strict. The meaning matches the stern warning exactly, so there is no second meaning here.

Concept

A homonym is a word with the same spelling and sound as another but an unrelated meaning. The test is meaning, not how different the sentence around it looks.

Stern carries two meanings. As an adjective it means strict or severe. As a noun it names the back of a boat or ship.

Dictionaries list the two as separate words, which is what makes them homonyms rather than one word used two ways.

Part of speech gives it away fast. In option (a), the stern of the ship puts stern after the and before of, where a noun stands. The other three put it before a noun or after was and be, where adjectives stand.

Key facts

Stern (adjective): strict, severe or serious in manner.
Stern (noun): the rear part of a ship or boat. The front is the bow.
Homonyms share spelling and sound but have unrelated meanings.

Study next

Ship words that are also everyday words: bow, deck, portHomographs that differ in sound: bow (bend) and bow (weapon), lead (metal) and lead (guide)Homophones such as row and roe, which sound alike but are spelt differently

Common traps

Picking the sentence that sounds harshest because a stern warning feels like the closest match, when every adjective option repeats the same meaning.
Treating a change of shade (stern face, stern tone) as a new meaning. Only the noun sense, the back of a ship, differs.

The same instruction is keyed at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.13: the bishop's mitre, a headdress, against 'a steel mitre joint at a 45° angle', keyed (a).

A fill-in version appears at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.9: 'to row in a row', keyed as row the verb and row the line.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Homonyms and confusables — all 10 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.