Antonyms Tips

Antonym questions test knowledge of vocabulary more directly than do any of the other verbal question types, the purpose of the antonym questions is to measure not merely the strength of your vocabulary but also the ability to reason from a given concept to its opposite. Antonyms may require only two thing, one, general knowledge of the word, or, second, they may require you to make fine distinctions among answer choices
Antonyms are generally confined to nouns, verbs, and adjectives; answer choices may be single words or phrases.

Some tips to remember in answering antonyms:

1. Remember that you are looking or the word that is the most nearly opposite to the given word; you are not looking for a synonym. Since many words do not have have a precise opposite, you must look for the answer choice that expresses a concept most nearly opposite to that of the given word.

2. In some cases more than one of the answer choices may appear at first to be opposite to the given word. Questions that require yo to make fine distinctions among two or more answer choices are best handled by defining more precisely or in greater detail the meaning of the given word.

3. It is often useful, in weighing answer choices, to make up a sentence using the given word or words. Substituting the answer choices in the phrase or sentence and seeing which best "fits," in that it reverses the meaning or tone of the sentence or phrase, may help you determine the best answer.

4. Remember that a particular word may have more than one meaning.

5. Use your knowledge of root, prefix, and suffix meanings to help you determine the meanings of words with which you are not entirely familiar.