Synonym drills: the word alone and in a sentence

A synonym is a word you can swap in

How to solve them

1. 1

   The word alone: say your own word first

   In the first format you see only the word: “Fervent most nearly means.” The wrong choices are written to catch you: some look like the word, one may be the opposite, one may be related to it. If you read them first, they choose for you.

   the word → your own word → the choices

   So change the order. Look at the word, say a short synonym of your own in your head, and only then read the choices, looking for yours.

   Example

   Fervent most nearly means: calm, passionate, fearful, frequent

   1. Cover the choices.
   2. Where have you heard it? A fervent fan cheers at every game, loud and proud. Your word: “full of strong feeling.”
   3. Now read: calm is the opposite, and fearful and frequent only look like fervent. Passionate matches your word.

   Answer Passionate

   Shortcut

   Hide the choices

   Cover the four choices with your hand until you have said your own word. A choice that looks like the test word pulls your eye before you have had time to think.

   Next step: Find a phrase ↓
2. 2

   No idea yet? Find a phrase the word lives in

   Most words you half know live in a phrase you have heard before: “a hectic schedule,” “adept at fixing cars.” Say the phrase in your head, and the meaning often comes with it.

   Then turn that meaning into one plain word. A plain word is easy to spot among the choices.

   Hectic

   a hectic schedule

   No time to breathe: very busy

   Adept

   adept at fixing cars

   Good at it: skilled

   Lament

   lament the loss of a friend

   Feel sad about it: mourn

   Next step: Replace and read ↓
3. 3

   The word in a sentence: cover it, then replace and read

   In the second format the word is underlined inside a sentence. The sentence is your clue. Cover the word with your finger, read the sentence, and ask: what word would make sense in that spot?

   Then replace and read: put each choice in place of the word and read the whole sentence again. The answer keeps the meaning of the sentence. A wrong choice either sounds wrong or changes what the sentence says.

   1. The hikers were parched after six hours without water.
   2. The hikers were hungry … No: the clue is water, not food.
   3. The hikers were sunburned … No: nothing in it is about the sun.
   4. The hikers were lost … No: water, not the trail.
   5. The hikers were thirsty after six hours without water. Yes.

   Next step: Wrong charge ↓
4. 4

   Cross out the wrong charge

   Many words carry a charge, a feeling: positive (good), negative (bad) or neutral (neither). A synonym has the same charge as the word.

   If the sentence is clearly bad news, every cheerful choice is out, even before you know the word. If you know the word sounds bad, the same goes for the alone format.

   Example

   When the concert was canceled, the crowd grew unruly, shoving and shouting at the gates. Unruly most nearly means: patient, joyful, silent, disorderly

   1. Charge: a canceled concert is bad news, so the crowd’s mood turns bad. The word is negative.
   2. Patient and joyful are positive: cross them out.
   3. Silent is neutral, and it goes against “shoving and shouting.” Replace and read: “the crowd grew disorderly.”

   Answer Disorderly

   Next step: Wrong kind of word ↓
5. 5

   Cross out the wrong part of speech

   The answer is the same part of speech, the same kind of word, as the test word. A verb (an action) is answered by a verb, an adjective (a describing word) by an adjective, a noun (a thing or person) by a noun. Test it with a frame:

   to ___verbto endorse · to support

   very ___adjectivevery hectic · very busy

   the ___nounthe remedy · the cure
   Example

   Endorse most nearly means: approval, supportive, support, signature

   1. Frame: “to endorse a candidate” works, so endorse is a verb.
   2. Put “to” in front of each choice. “To approval,” “to supportive” and “to signature” fail. Approval has the right idea, but it is a noun.
   3. Only support passes: “to support a candidate.”

   Answer Support

   Next step: Word parts ↓
6. 6

   Word parts: the last resort

   When your own word, a phrase and the sentence all give you nothing, look inside the word for a prefix or root you know. Use it to cross out choices, not to build a full definition, because parts can point the wrong way.

   Keep the order: first get your own word (from memory, from a phrase, or from the sentence), then check charge and part of speech, and use word parts last.

   Parts help

   incoherent

   in- (not) + coherent (holds together): not making sense

   Parts mislead

   enervate

   Looks like “energy,” but means to drain energy: weaken

   Next step: Three examples ↓
7. 7

   Three worked examples, from easy to test level

   Each one starts with the first try many people make, crossed out, and then the way that works. Read the wrong try too: it is the kind of answer the test puts in the choices.

   The test-level one uses every tool in order: the sentence first, then the charge, then replace and read for the last two choices.

   Example · Easy

   Commence most nearly means: finish, begin, repeat, explain

   First tryCommencement is graduation, the end of school, so commence = finish

   1. Cover the choices and say your own word. “The ceremony will commence at noon” means it will start then. Your word: “start.”
   2. Graduation is called commencement because it is the start of what comes next. Finish is the opposite.
   3. Look for your word: begin matches start. Repeat and explain have nothing to do with it.

   Answer Begin

   Example · Medium

   With no new recruits, the club’s membership dwindled from forty to twelve. Dwindled most nearly means: doubled, steadied, scattered, shrank

   First tryPeople left and went their own ways, so dwindled = scattered

   1. Cover the word and read: forty members became twelve. Your word: “got smaller.”
   2. Doubled is the opposite, and steadied means it stayed the same. Both go against the numbers.
   3. Scattered is about where people go, not how many are left. Replace and read: “membership scattered from forty to twelve” does not make sense.
   4. “Membership shrank from forty to twelve” keeps the meaning.

   Answer Shrank

   Example · Test level

   The new lieutenant was so affable that soldiers brought their problems to her first. Affable most nearly means: skilled, strict, approachable, nervous

   First tryAffable ends in -able, so it means able: skilled

   1. The first try jumped to word parts. They come last, not first. And here -able means “can be”: affable is “easy to talk to,” not “skilled.”
   2. Cover the word: soldiers bring her their problems first, so she is easy to talk to. Your word: “easy to talk to.”
   3. Charge: the sentence is positive, so nervous is out. Strict does not fit someone everyone goes to with their problems.
   4. Compare the two left with your word, “easy to talk to.” Skilled is about how good she is at the job, not about how easy she is to talk to. “So approachable that soldiers brought their problems to her first” says exactly your word.

   Answer Approachable

4 traps in the answer choices

The test writes its wrong answers on purpose: each one is what you get if you make one of these mistakes.

15 questions in three levels

Warm-up first, then core, then test level. Pick an answer, then read why.

11 flashcards

Tap a card to flip it. Keep the ones you miss until they stick.