SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 5 of 98

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 correct spelling of a word meaning 'having a strong, regular beat'.

(a)Rythmic
(b)Rhythmic
(c)Rhythimic
(d)Rhytmic

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Build it from the base word rhythm, spelt r-h-y-t-h-m, with two h's: one after the r, one in the th.

Rhythm has no letter between the th and the m, even though you hear a faint vowel there.

Add -ic straight on: rhythm + ic = Rhythmic → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Rythmic — Rythmic drops the h after the r. Rhythm opens with rh-, the spelling English uses in words from Greek such as rhetoric and rhinoceros.
(c)
Rhythimic — Rhythimic inserts an i between th and m. The base word rhythm has no letter there, and -ic joins it directly: rhythm + ic.
(d)
Rhytmic — Rhytmic drops the h of th. The middle sound of rhythm is th, so the t needs its h.

Concept

A spelling item built on a meaning names the word, then tests its unexpected letters. Rhythmic has two: the h after r, and the h in th.

Anchor on the base word. Rhythm carries both h's, and the adjective adds -ic without changing anything.

One memory aid spells the base word: Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move. Its first letters are R-H-Y-T-H-M.

The meaning 'having a strong, regular beat' only identifies the word. All four options are attempts at the same word, so the item tests spelling alone.

Key facts

Rhythm is spelt r-h-y-t-h-m, with two h's and none of a, e, i, o or u.
Rhythmic is rhythm plus -ic, with no letter added between.
Rhythm comes, through Latin, from Greek rhuthmos.

Study next

Other words from Greek that open rh-, such as rhetoric, rhapsody, rheumatism and rhombusWords where y is the only vowel letter, such as myth, lynx and crypt

Common traps

Dropping one of the two h's, after the r or in the th
Adding an i before the m because you hear a faint vowel there when you say rhythm

English Q.6 in this shift uses the same frame, a definition followed by four spellings of one word (keyed Incontrovertible).

It also appears at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.5, where 'a person of high rank or title' is keyed Noble against Nobble, Noblie and Nobel.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Spelling — all 118 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.