CUET UG key terms

The skill of reading a passage and answering questions about its stated ideas, implied meaning, tone, and vocabulary. CUET language papers test it through unseen passages in English and other languages.

A conclusion drawn from evidence in the passage rather than stated directly. Questions often ask what the author implies, suggests, or would likely agree with.

The central point a paragraph or passage is built around. Distractors often describe a supporting detail or a true but minor point instead of the overall claim.

The author's emotional stance toward the subject, such as critical, sympathetic, neutral, or ironic. Answers are usually adjectives, and the evidence must come from word choice in the text.

Deciding what a word means as it is used in a specific sentence, which may differ from its most common dictionary sense. Surrounding words and sentence logic supply the clue.

Words with opposite and with similar meanings respectively. These questions test precision, so candidates must check register and exact sense rather than picking a loosely related word.

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as 'to let the cat out of the bag'. Idiom questions ask for the correct meaning or a suitable replacement.

A verb combined with a preposition or adverb that creates a new meaning, such as 'give up' or 'put off'. The particle cannot be guessed from the base verb alone.

The rule that a verb must match its subject in number and person. Errors often hide in long sentences with interrupting phrases, collective nouns, or correlative conjunctions like 'either...or'.

A question type where a sentence is divided into parts and the candidate identifies the part containing a grammatical error. Typical targets are tense, prepositions, articles, and pronouns.

Choosing among 'a', 'an', 'the', or no article. Rules depend on whether the noun is countable, specific, unique, or part of a fixed expression such as 'the Himalayas' or 'go to school'.

A small word showing relationship of place, time, or direction, such as 'in', 'on', 'at', 'since', and 'for'. Fixed combinations with verbs and adjectives are frequently tested.

A question type where jumbled sentences or parts of a paragraph must be put into a logical order. Linking words, pronoun reference, and cause-effect flow are the main clues.

A passage with words removed and options supplied for each blank. Success depends on grammar, collocation, and keeping the paragraph's meaning consistent across sentences.

Cohesion is how sentences are linked by connectors, pronouns, and repeated words; coherence is how the whole text makes logical sense. Both are tested in rearrangement and cloze items.

Expressive devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and oxymoron. Literature and language sections ask candidates to identify the device used in a given line.

Reading a poem, story extract, or drama passage and answering about theme, character, setting, and device. It differs from factual comprehension because interpretation and literary terms matter.

Conveying the meaning of a sentence in another language without adding, dropping, or distorting information. CUET language papers include translation items where literal word-for-word rendering often fails.

The sound change that occurs when two words or morphemes join in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, for example vowel merging at a boundary. Questions ask candidates to split or combine forms correctly.

Compound formation in Sanskrit, where two or more words combine into a single unit with a specific relationship between members. Identifying the type and the underlying words is a standard grammar item.

A text not from the prescribed syllabus, used to test genuine reading ability. Questions cover explicit detail, vocabulary, inference, and the writer's purpose rather than memorised content.

A logical argument with two premises and a conclusion, tested through Venn-diagram reasoning. Candidates decide whether the conclusion necessarily follows, possibly follows, or does not follow.

Reasoning puzzles that describe family links in words or coded symbols and ask how two people are related. Drawing a small family tree while tracking gender avoids most errors.

Puzzles placing people around a circle or in a row using clues about left, right, and facing direction. Candidates must fix orientation first, since 'left' reverses when a person faces outward.

A sequence with a hidden pattern such as differences, ratios, squares, or alternating operations. The task is to find the rule and supply the missing or wrong term.

Questions where words or numbers are converted by a rule and the candidate must apply or reverse it. Rules range from letter shifts to position-based and substitution ciphers.

Measurement of length, area, volume, and surface area of plane and solid figures. Formulas for triangles, circles, cylinders, cones, and spheres must be recalled and applied accurately.

A ratio of two sides of a right triangle, such as sine, cosine, or tangent, defined relative to an acute angle. Standard values at 0, 30, 45, 60, and 90 degrees are frequently required.

The measure of how likely an event is, calculated as favourable outcomes divided by total equally likely outcomes. Problems combine it with combinations, dice, cards, and independent events.

Counting arrangements where order matters and selections where it does not. Recognising which applies, and handling repetition and restriction conditions, decides the answer.

The production of an electromotive force when magnetic flux through a circuit changes. Faraday's law and Lenz's law explain the magnitude and the direction of the induced current.

The emission of electrons from a metal surface when light above a threshold frequency strikes it. It shows light behaves as particles, with energy proportional to frequency.

The statement that current through a conductor is proportional to potential difference across it at constant temperature and physical state. Resistance is the constant of proportionality.

The idea that one mole contains Avogadro's number of particles and has a mass in grams equal to the substance's atomic or molecular mass. It links mass, particles, and gas volume.

Patterns across the periodic table in atomic radius, ionisation energy, electronegativity, and metallic character. They follow from nuclear charge and shielding across periods and down groups.

A specialised structure inside a eukaryotic cell, such as the mitochondrion, chloroplast, ribosome, or Golgi apparatus. Questions match structure to function and to cell type.

Core terms such as allele, genotype, phenotype, dominant, recessive, homozygous, and heterozygous. Mendel's laws and pedigree or cross problems rely on using these precisely.

A first-hand record such as an inscription, coin, letter, or contemporary chronicle used by historians. It is distinguished from later interpretation and from textbooks written afterwards.

The Bronze Age urban culture of the Indus valley and adjoining regions, known for planned cities, standardised weights, seals, and a still-undeciphered script. Its dating and decline are common questions.

The governing system of the Mauryan empire, described partly in the Arthashastra and Ashokan edicts, with provinces, officials, spies, and a standing army. Ashoka's dhamma policy is a frequent focus.

The study of how history is written, including the assumptions and methods of different schools such as colonial, nationalist, Marxist, and subaltern. It shapes how the same evidence is interpreted.