GRE VERBAL ABILITY - ANTONYMS

Antonym questions account for about one quarter of the marks on the verbal section of GRE. Antonyms test your vocabulary.

Unlike some of the questions in the other verbal sections, antonyms are simple and quite direct.

You are given one word and then find another word that is most nearly OPPOSITE in meaning.

Sometimes more than one answer is plausible; in these cases you'll be distinguishing shades of meaning.

Directions

Choose the answer key corresponding to the word with a meaning most nearly opposite to the meaning of word in capital letters.
Example:

OBDURATE

(A) amenable
(B) stubborn
(C) rash
(D) vacuous
(E) advanced

The best way to approach these questions depends on how familiar you are with the words in the question.

In essence, antonym questions are a gauge of your vocabulary.

Sometimes, they go after your ability to reason a little, or to discernnuance, but for the most part, it's vocabulary.

Which means that, beyond learning the strategies we're about to outline, the best thing you can do to help yourself do well is build your vocabulary.

If you're familiar with all the words in the question, then you may not need to think much about how you approach the question. Just jump right in and find the best answer.

You may, however, find yourself in a situation where you thought you were familiar with all the vocabulary, and yet none of the answers quite seems to work.

First off, relax. You recognize the words; you're halfway there.

Next, remind yourself that the best choice is a specific and exact antonym.

Then give yourself a minute to really think about what the question word could mean.

Occasionally, you'll find that the first word has more than one meaning, and the test-makers are trying to see if you recognize its less common usage or form.

If you don't know all the words, there are a couple of different ways for you to go.

One way is to try and unpack the meaning yourself. This means getting at the core or root of the word.

Begin by stripping off any prefixes or suffixes. These include parts like "-ing," "un-," "pre-," "-in", "-able" and so forth.

What are you left with? You can often guess the meaning once you've arrived at the root, the core of the word.