Synonyms & AntonymsXAT Previous-Year Questions

5 previous-year questions on Synonyms & Antonyms from XAT, with full solutions. Practise free — check answers as you go; sign in to save your progress.

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Synonyms & Antonyms · XAT PYQs

XAT 2019 · VARC
Passage / Data

In 1942, the French writer Albert Camus composed an essay, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. It draws on the Greek fable of a man condemned to roll a rock up a mountain only to have it roll back down under its own weight, a ______ that lasts for eternity. Camus argues that this image ______ the human condition in a world where we can no longer make sense of events; but instead of committing suicide, we should ______ ourselves to this ‘elusive feeling of absurdity’ and bear it as best we can. In this sense, Sisyphus is the ideal hero.
Consider the following words:

  1. surrender
  2. choice
  3. symbolises
  4. quandary
  5. attune
  6. option
  7. reconcile
  8. depicts

 

Q1.

Study the first sentence and then identify from among the options given the closest antonym of the highlighted word in the second sentence

It’s conventional wisdom that procreation between first cousins is unhealthy. But what are the actual genetic risks?

XAT 2016 · VARC
Passage / Data

Read the following poem and answer the question that follows:

I sought a soul in the sea
And found a coral there
Beneath the foam for me
An ocean was all laid bare.

Into my heart’s night
Along a narrow way
I groped; and lo! The light,
An infinite land of day.
​​​​​​​

Q2.

The subject of this book is knavery, skullduggery, cheating, betrayal, unfairness, crime, sneakiness, malingering, cutting corner, immorality, dishonesty, betrayal, graft, wickedness, and sin.

Which of the following options best captures ALL the italicized words above?

XAT 2015 · VARC
Q3.

Which of the following is not a term of ‘disapproval’?

XAT 2015 · VARC
Q4.

Six words are given below
Cacophonic
Cacographic
Calamitous
Catastrophic
Contraindicative
Cataclysmic

Which of the above words have similar meanings?

XAT 2012 · VARC
Q5.

Ravindra Dubey was guilty of embezzlement.  It means that Ravindra Dubey