Sakshi Education
It is an indubitable fact that English has become a prerequisite for success in the present ultra-competitive world. In most of the competitive exams, a poor performance in English section shrinks the chances of your selection, and most probably, you will find yourself lagging behind others on the path towards success. Language plays a very important part in our daily lives - academic or professional - than we usually realize. The everyday act of speaking and writing, of reading and thinking, strengthens our communication skills and prepares us for the future. Competitive exams like the Bank Clerical and Probationary Officer exams accept or reject candidates on the basis of certain parameters that are crucial for the candidate to succeed in his/her chosen career-field. The English usage section basically tests your decision-making skills and English language skills. Your verbal skills are tested to gauge how well-equipped you are to deal with a crisis. This is precisely why we have English usage as an important part of competitive entrance exams. This week, we look at some more 'one-word substitutes' that will help you in fail-safe preparation for the bank exams.
| Expression | One-word Substitute |
| Habitually silent or talking little | Taciturn |
| A religious discourse | Sermon (also 'homily') |
| A place that provides refuge | Asylum |
| Detailed plan of a journey | Itinerary |
| A large pillar made from one stone | Monolith (also 'Megalith') |
| A large pillar made from one stone | Monolith (also 'Megalith') |
| A situation that exists at a particular time without any changes being made to it | Status Quo |
| Official misconduct | Malfeasance |
| One who has a compulsive desire to steal | Kleptomaniac |
| A person who renounces the world and practices self-discipline in order to attain salvation | Ascetic |
| A government by the nobles | Aristocracy |
| One who abstains from taking wine | Teetotaller |
| The part of a government which is concerned with making of rules | Legislature |
| To steal secretly in small quantities | Pilferage |
| One who does not marry, especially as a religious obligation | Celibate |
| A place for sick people who need long periods of treatment or rest | Sanatorium (also spelled as 'Sanatarium' or 'Sanitarium') |
| A person who eats too much | Glutton (also 'gourmand') |
| An imaginary name assumed by an author for disguise | Pseudonym |
| Government by a priestly order | Theocracy |
| Government by one person | Dictatorship |
| The life story of a man written by himself | Autobiography |
| A general pardon granted by the government to political offenders | Amnesty |
| A person who is out to destroy the government | Anarchist |
| One who plays a game for pleasure, and not as a professional | Amateur |
| Perceptible to the ear | Audible |
| Public sale in which articles are sold to highest bidders | Auction |
| A government that is carried on through officers | Bureaucracy |
| The system of having two wives or husbands at a time | Bigamy |
| A person who readily believes all | Credulous |
| A person living at the same time as another | Contemporary |
| A disease which is spread by contact | Contagious |
| Concluding part of a literary work | Epilogue |
| More like a woman than a man in manners and habits | Effeminate |
| A statement that is absolutely clear | Unequivocal(also 'categorical') |
| A man with abnormal habits | Eccentric |
| A person who is fond of refined sensuous pleasures | Epicurean |
| The murder of a human being | Homicide |
| A strict disciplinarian | Martinet |
| One who flatters important and powerful people in order to gain personal advantage | Sycophant |
| Policemen riding on motorcycles or horses as guards, beside or in front of an official vehicle, in order to protect the people in the vehicle | Outriders |
| The practice of using or copying someone else's idea or work and pretending that it is your own | Plagiarism |
| A large dark grey cloud that brings rain or snow | Nimbus |
| A person who insists on something | Sticker |
| A disease that affects a very large number of people and spreads quickly to other areas | Epidemic |
| A disease or illness that is frequently found among the people who live in a particular area | Endemic |
| The leading hero or central character of a play, drama, movie, or novel | Protagonist |
| An account of a person's life written by someone else | Biography |
| One who can use both his right hand and left hand equally skillfully | Ambidextrous |
| Strong, unreasonable belief that your own country is more important and morally better than other people's | Chauvinism (also 'Jingoism') |
| One who collects coins | Numismatist |
| One who collects stamps | Philatelist |
| One who is partly introvert and partly extrovert | Ambivert |
| One who enjoys good food and knows a lot about food and wine | Gourmet |
| One who does not believe in human progress | Cynic |
| One who believes in the equality of all people | Egalitarian (also 'Democrat') |
| An expert in crossword puzzles | Cruciverbalist |
| The art of good handwriting | Calligraphy |
| Bad and incoherent handwriting/bad spelling/bad penmanship | Cacography |
| Ghost of a living person or a person who looks exactly like another (double) | Doppelganger |
| Misappropriate property in one's charge | Embezzle/Defalcate/Malversate |
| Loss of sense of smell | Amnosia |
| Partial or total loss of memory | Amnesia |
| Pertaining to or inhabiting trees | Arboreal |
| The doorkeeper of an apartment, house or flats | Concierge |
| Pupil/student of a school, college, or university | Alumnus/Alumnae |
| The study of work and working conditions to improve people's efficiency | Ergonomics |
| Kept without means of communication with the outside world | Incommunicado |
| One who relapses or fall backs into crime; a habitual criminal | Recidivist |
| The art of making prediction from dreams | Oneiromancy |
| Under consideration of judiciary | Sub-judice |
| The knack of making happy or fortunate discoveries by chance or accident | Serendipity |
| Cool self-possession in times of trouble, danger or agitating circumstances | Sang-froid |
| One who pays excessive attention to correctness of language, spelling, etc. | Purist |
| One who practices the art of correct spelling | Orthographist |
| Talk or behaviour designed to draw one's attention away from what is actually happening | Hocus-pocus |
| One ready for any lawless deed | Desperado |
| The growing or cultivation of fruits | Pomiculture |
| The breeding, rearing, and transplantation of fish by artificial means | Pisciculture |
Published date : 12 Jan 2011 01:41PM
