ANTONYMS

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ANTONYMS
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Overview

• Antonym questions test knowledge of vocabulary
• Measure the strength of your vocabulary and your
  ability to reason from a given concept to its
  opposite
• May require only general knowledge of a word
• May require that you make fine distinctions among
  answer choices
• Generally confined to nouns, verbs, and
  adjectives
• Answer choices may be single words or phrases

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Directions

• Each question consists of a word printed in
  capital letters followed by five lettered words
  or phrases.
• Choose the lettered word or phrase that is most
  nearly opposite in meaning to the word in capital
  letters.
• Some of the questions require you to distinguish
  fine shades of meaning, be sure to consider all
  the choices before deciding which one is best.

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Helpful Hints

• Remember you are looking for the word pair that
  is the most nearly opposite to the given word
  pair
• More than one of the answer choices may appear to
  be the opposite try to define the given word
  more precisely or in greater detail
• Make up a sentence using the given word or words
• The best answer will reverse the meaning or tone
• Remember that a word may have more than one
  meaning
• Consider the root, prefix, and suffix to help you
  determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.

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• DO NOT LOOK AT THE ANSWER CHOICES FIRST!!! Think
  of words that are opposite the word in question
  before you look at the answer choices, and then
  find synonyms of the words you thought of
• Determine the part of speech. All answer choices
  have the same part of speech. If the word in
  question can be more than one part of speech, use
  the answer choices to figure out which part of
  speech ETS wants you to use.
• Attempt to figure out if the word in question has
  a negative or positive connotation.
• Read all the choices before you choose. Consider
  every single answer choice before jumping to a
  conclusion.
• Build your vocabulary

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Examples

• RELUCTANT
• Relaxed
• Eager
• Tiresome
• Brave
• Unwilling

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Example

• AFFECTED
• Disturbed
• Maladroit
• Solid
• Unadulterated
• Genuine

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Example of using root words

• Your given the word Predisposition
• Pre means before
• tion is in a lot of nouns, you can assume your
  dealing with a noun
• Youve figured out your dealing with a noun that
  means disposed before or disposed to in advance
• A predisposition is a previous inclination,
  tendency, or propensity

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Another example

• Your given the word Omnipotent
• Omni means all or everything
• The potency of something refers to its strength
• Omni Potent all powerful

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One More

• Your given the word Multifaceted
• Multi means many
• A facet is a side or face
• Multi facet having many facets

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Connotation of the word

• Your asked to find the antonym of nefarious
• Does this word covey something negative to you?
  Have you heard it used in a criticism of
  something.
• Since youre after opposites, the word you are
  looking for has a positive connotation.
• Eliminate all the words that mean something bad
  (negative) and focus on the other choices that
  mean something good (positive).

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Practice

• ROUGH
• Large
• Round
• Smooth
• Reliable
• Friendly

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Practice - Put the word in context

• VETO
• Refuse
• Reject
• Disengage
• Allow
• Vote

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Practice - Identify the Words Emotional Charge

• VIRULENT
• Deadly
• Malignant
• Benign
• Bacterial
• Yellow

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Practice - Look for Clues in Word Parts

• MORIBUND
• Contentious
• Malignant
• Pretentious
• Detestable
• Vital

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Practice - Look for Clues in Parts of Speech

• FREQUENT
• Mean
• Content
• Disturb
• Evade
• Reserve

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Practice - Consider Alternate Meanings

• ORDER
• Menu
• List
• Chaos
• Summons
• Paper

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Summary

• The correct antonym is specific and exact. There
  wont be tricks.
• If you dont know what a word means you can try
  two things1) Try to get at its roots.
  Dismantle the word and look at its parts.2)
  Focus on whether it has a positive or negative
  connotation. Then pick a word with the opposite
  connotation.
• Eliminate answers you know are wrong.