Vocabulary and Word Usage: Synonyms, Idioms and Word Formation
Vocabulary and Word Usage tests synonyms and antonyms, one-word substitution, idioms and phrasal verbs, homophones, word formation and spelling in context. The examiner is checking whether you can choose the word the sentence needs, not whether you know the longest word.
Rules that decide marks
- Pick the synonym that fits the register of the sentence, not the dictionary's first sense.
- Idioms are fixed units: 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret; never read it word by word.
- Phrasal verbs change meaning with the particle: put off (postpone), put out (extinguish), put up with (tolerate).
- One-word substitutions: a person who speaks many languages = polyglot; that which cannot be avoided = inevitable; one who believes in God = theist.
- Homophones: affect (verb) and effect (noun); principal (head, main) and principle (rule); stationary (still) and stationery (paper).
- Word formation: dis-, un-, in-, il-, ir-, mis- for negatives; -ness, -ity, -ment, -tion for nouns; -able, -ive, -ous for adjectives. Watch spelling shifts: happy to happiness, receive to reception.
Worked example
'His excuse was so ______ that nobody believed him.' (a) credible (b) credulous (c) incredible (d) creditable. Reasoning: 'nobody believed him' signals a negative judgement; credible means believable, credulous describes a person who believes too easily, creditable means praiseworthy. Only incredible, meaning unbelievable, fits. Answer: (c). Had the sentence read 'He was so ______ that he believed every rumour', credulous would be correct.
Traps
Choosing a familiar meaning when the sentence demands the second sense, interpreting idioms literally, ignoring the particle in a phrasal verb, mixing British and American spellings in one answer, and supplying a noun where the blank needs an adjective.