Fill in the blank with the correctly spelt word. His ___ disregard for protocol annoyed his superiors.

Correct — A. The spelling is b-l-a-t-a-n-t: a single t in the middle and the ending -ant.

The word is said BLAY-tant, with the long a of later, not the short a of latter. Like later, it takes a single t.

The meaning fits the blank too: blatant means done openly and unashamedly. A blatant disregard for protocol is the kind that annoys superiors → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  blaetant — blaetant slips an e in after the first a. There is no 'ae' in the word: it is b-l-a, then t-a-n-t.
• (c)
  blatennt — blatennt goes wrong at the end: it doubles the n and swaps -ant for -ent. The word ends in -ant, with a single n.
• (d)
  blattant — blattant doubles the t. The word is said BLAY-tant, with the long a of later, and it is spelt with a single t.

Read the blank before the letters. The sentence needs an adjective for a disregard that is open and unashamed, and blatant is that word.

Each wrong option breaks the word in its own way: an extra e after the first a, a doubled t in the middle, or a doubled n with an -ent ending.

The -ant/-ent choice cannot be heard, because both endings sound the same when unstressed. Learn it with the word: blatant, like flagrant and vacant, ends in -ant.

Key facts

• Blatant is spelt b-l-a-t-a-n-t, with a single t in the middle and an -ant ending.
• Blatant describes bad behaviour done openly and unashamedly.
• Its noun is blatancy.
• The word is traced to Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, whose Blatant Beast is a slandering monster.

Common traps

• Doubling the t by analogy with words like battle, when blatant has a long a
• Writing -ent by analogy with patent, which ends with the same sound but is spelt -ent

No directly related past PYQ was found.