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Lesson: Analogies - 09

Analogies: How to make guessing

Make Educated Guesses About the Meanings of Unfamiliar Words Prefixes, suffixes, and roots of words help a lot to apply this technique.

Either of the following might provide a understanding about the meaning of an unfamiliar word in an Analogy question.

  • Another word that resembles the word in any way
  • The word’s root or prefix

To underscore this point, here’s a -style Analogy in which both capitalized words provide clues about what they mean:

Practice Questions

Example

HETEROGENEITY : ASSIMILATION
  1. pride : jealousy
  2. deformity : birth
  3. punctuality : attention
  4. delay : obstacle
  5. contention : victory

Example Solution

HETEROGENEITY : ASSIMILATION
  1. Crosspride : jealousy
  2. Crossdeformity : birth
  3. Crosspunctuality : attention
  4. Crossdelay : obstacle
  5. Checkcontention : victory

Explanation

The correct answer is (E). The word HETEROGENEITY contains the prefix hetero-, which means “different.” The word ASSIMILATION adds a prefix and a suffix to the common word similar. Based on this information, it’s probably a good bet that the meanings of the two words run contrary to each other. On this basis alone, you can easily eliminate choices (A), (B), and (D). As for choice (C), the words punctuality and attention are not closely related to each other.

That leaves choice (E). For the record, ASSIMILATION (absorption) typically results in homogeneity (sameness or similarity); that is, it serves to reduce or eliminate HETEROGENEITY (diversity in character). Similarly, victory for one means defeat for another; so victory often eliminates contention (rivalry) between two foes. The analogy, though not perfect, is strong enough.

Next to display next topic in the chapter.

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