Question

Choose the word that gives the antonym of the word italicized :
My uncle is very wealthy but rather parsimonious in his habits.
a)Extravagant
b)Generous
c)Careless
d)Strict

Answer 1

Hint: Given word, ‘parsimonious’ means miserly, close-fisted or penny-pinching, now one needs to know the meanings of the words given in the options.

Complete step-by-step answer:

In the given sentence, the italicized word “parsimonious” means miserly, or close-fisted. Antonym means a word that is opposite in meaning to the given word. Now one must check which one of the options means the opposite of the word “parsimonious”. Option a, “extravagant” means wasteful, exorbitant, or thriftless, which is opposite in meaning to the given word, hence it is the correct option. Option b, “generous” means lavish or giving, it is not exactly the antonym to the given word, hence is also incorrect. Option c, “careless” means absent-minded or negligent, which is irrelevant to the given word and context, it is an incorrect option. Option d, “strict”, means stern or firm, which is again irrelevant to the given word and context. Hence option d is an incorrect option. Clearly, option ‘a’ is the correct choice.

Note: The tricky part of this question can be to differentiate between the words “extravagant” and “generous”, because they both have positive meanings and can be confusing, but “extravagant” is much closer to the opposite of the given word.