Vocabulary and Word Usage (शब्द-भंडार एवं शब्द-प्रयोग)
The शब्द-भंडार एवं शब्द-प्रयोग domain checks whether your Hindi lexicon is precise, not merely large. Prabodh-level items ask for पर्यायवाची, विलोम, अनेकार्थी शब्द, अनेक शब्दों के लिए एक शब्द, उपसर्ग-प्रत्यय, and शब्द-शुद्धि, and the wrong options are usually near-synonyms that fit the sentence but not the meaning.
Core categories
- पर्यायवाची (synonyms): पृथ्वी - धरती, भूमि, वसुधा; कमल - पंकज, नीरज, सरोज. Learn them in sets, not singly.
- विलोम (antonyms): उत्कर्ष–अपकर्ष, उदार–कृपण, स्थावर–जंगम.
- अनेकार्थी (polysemous): कनक means both स्वर्ण and धतूरा; हार means पराजय and माला. Context alone decides.
- तत्सम/तद्भव: अग्नि → आग, दुग्ध → दूध, अक्षि → आँख. If the question says तत्सम, the Sanskrit form is the answer.
- उपसर्ग/प्रत्यय: अनु + शासन = अनुशासन; लड़कपन = लड़क + पन.
अनेक शब्दों के लिए एक शब्द
Build these as definitions, not lists: जो सब कुछ जानता है → सर्वज्ञ; जो कहा न जा सके → अकथनीय; जो ईश्वर में विश्वास न रखता हो → नास्तिक. The negative prefixes अ-, अन-, नि-, दुर्- do most of the work, so read the definition for its polarity before choosing.
Worked example
The classic अनेकार्थी line “कनक कनक ते सौ गुनी मादकता अधिकाय” uses कनक twice. In the first position it means स्वर्ण (gold), in the second धतूरा (datura), and the verse's point is that the intoxication of wealth exceeds that of the drug a hundredfold. The reasoning step is grammatical: both occurrences are the same masculine noun, so only context can disambiguate - which is exactly what an अनेकार्थी question tests.
Traps
- Picking a synonym that is contextually wrong: दृष्टि and नज़र overlap, but दृष्टिकोण is a viewpoint, not eyesight.
- Confusing similar-looking pairs: अनुग्रह (favour) versus अनुगृहीत (obliged); निराशा versus नैराश्य.
- Using a तद्भव form when the item asks for तत्सम, or vice versa.
- Misspelling तत्सम clusters: उज्ज्वल, द्वंद्व, तत्त्व, विद्यार्थी.
- Answering a one-word-substitution item with a phrase of two words; the format demands a single शब्द.