Question

Choose the word that gives the antonym of the word italicized.
I think this article ought to have been put in a compact form.
A) Expanded
B) Enlarged
C) Diffused
D) broken

Answer 1

Hint:Antonyms are the words that are opposite in meaning to another. The root words for the word 'antonym' are the words 'anti' meaning 'against' or 'opposite' and 'onym' meaning 'name’. For instance: the antonym of ‘hot’ is ‘cold’.

Complete answer:
The meaning of the word compact is ‘closely and neatly packed together; dense’. So, as per the question we must find the word which is opposite in meaning to the word compact.
Option A) Expanded - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of expanded is ‘being or having been enlarged or extended’ and this is not antonym of the word compact. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option B) Enlarged - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of enlarged is ‘having become or been made larger’ and this is not antonym of the word compact. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option C) Diffused - is the correct answer because the meaning of diffused is ‘spread over a wide area or between a large number of people or scatter’ and this is the antonym of the word compact as they have different meanings or they are opposite in meaning to each other. Thus, this is the correct answer.
Option D) broken - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of broken is ‘having been broken or smashed or burst or shattered’ and this is not antonym of the word compact. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Hence, the correct answer is Option ‘ C’.

Note: Antonyms are the words that are opposite to each other i.e. antonyms of compact is diffused, and synonyms are the words that are similar in meaning. So, the synonym of compact is dense. Thus, Option C is the most appropriate answer as compared to the other options as they do not have the opposite meaning to the given word.