The Antonyms

Antonyms are one of the most difficult part of the verbal section .You will come across with 9 questions on antonym in the verbal section. In antonym questions, you have to choose the word that is exactly or nearly opposite to main word. Look at the following mentioned example:

Rarefy

1. Condense.
2. Conceive
3. Consign
4. Conduct.
5. Confound.

Word ‘rarefy’ has three possible meaning that are lessen the density or solidity, make more subtle or refined, and weaken the consistency of (metallic) .So correct antonym should be like increasing the density or making denser. Now check which option is close in meaning. ‘Condense’ means to increase the density of (Substance).So option 1 will be the correct antonym. The best way to answer antonym questions is to find the antonym of the main word first then match that antonym with all presented options.

Here are some key points to remember:

If you don’t know the meaning of main word

Most words in English language are derived from other language mainly from Latin or Greek .If you are unable to figure out the meaning of main word then break the word into prefix and root and after knowing the meaning of these two you can figure out the meaning of main word. Example: Hippopotamus this word can be broken into ‘Hippo ‘ and ‘Potamus’ hippo means horse and ‘Potamus’ means river .So, ‘Hippopotamus’ means horse of river.

Positive and negative connotation of word

Positive and negative connotation means, positive or negative implication of word. There are thousands of words in English language with positive and negative connotation .Example childish, difficult, stubborn(negative connotation) childlike, challenging, steadfast (positive).The words with the prefix de, dis, in denote negative connotation. If main word is in positive connotation then its antonyms would be in negative connotation or vice-versa.

Antonyms and Part of Speech

Do bear in mind main word and its antonym will always be in same parts of speech. If main word is noun then its antonym will also be a noun.

Enhance your vocabulary

You should also work on your vocabulary to crack antonyms. There are many techniques to improve vocabulary you can adopt any of them .Good collection of vocabulary will help you with antonym immensely.

When you think more than one option could be correct antonym

In this case try to define the meaning of main word more precisely or in greater detail.

If you thing that GRE antonym is all about your learning capacity then you are not correct but good vocabulary base can help you a lot in scoring well. You can get help from flash card available on learnwordlist.com and you can also take antonym test available on this website. It will certainly benefit you in GRE’s verbal section. If you wish to express your views on this blog then kindly leave your comment in feedback section beneath this blog.

Wishing you success!!!

Best Regards,

Shipra Srivastava
Team Learnwordlist.com

12 Responses to “The Antonyms”

1. Phillips Odwokacen on July 14th, 2010 3:11 pm

   Pliz, I request for GRE – Mathematics learning contents / samples

2. Noh Alam Shah on July 16th, 2010 3:31 am

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3. shipra on July 16th, 2010 4:11 am

   shah, kindly visit following link for scholarships http://scholarship-positions.com/

4. shipra on July 16th, 2010 4:56 am

   Hii phillips , currently we are not dealing with mathmatics part,so we are unable to help you in that regard..

5. Fathia ABDUALRHMAN on July 18th, 2010 9:02 am

   iWOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT SYNOYMS

6. Fathia ABDUALRHMAN on July 18th, 2010 9:03 am

   iWOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT SYNONYNS

7. shipra on July 19th, 2010 4:32 am

   hi Fathia,In synonym type question u have to look for equivalent word for main word,also stay tuned my next blog on synonyms.

8. nanik ram on July 19th, 2010 2:58 pm

   i want to know about gerund and past participle

9. shipra on July 20th, 2010 4:13 am

   Hi ram , just keep visiting learnwordlist.com soon we shall come up something interesting on gerund and participle.

10. Sebastian Fabian Kojo Peprah on October 30th, 2010 9:46 am

    I thank u for the recent Gre information, i wish to apply to sit for 2011 or 2012 test but unfortunately for me i lack the necessary books to read. Am hoping you can help me out.
    Thank you

11. shipra on October 30th, 2010 10:04 am

    Thanks , you can start your preparation by taking all the test on learnwordlist.com same time you can also take help from Barron’s book.

12. montasser on April 8th, 2011 10:01 pm

    it’s very interesting what were speaking about here. still the willingness is the key.

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