Question

Choose the word which best expresses the meaning of the italicized bold part of the sentence:
Your despicable remarks call for no reply.
a) sarcastic
b) contemptuous
c) critical
d) contemptible

Answer 1

Hint: The word ‘despicable’ refers to ‘deserving hatred and contempt’. This word is usually used as an adjective and its adverb form is ‘despicably’ and its verb form is ‘despise’. Another synonym of the word is ‘loathsome’.

Complete answer:
In order to replace the italicized word without changing the meaning of the sentence, we need the synonym of the given word. A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example, ‘shut’ is a synonym of ‘close’.

In the given sentence, the word ‘despicable’ is used to describe the kind of remarks that the subject made. It gives us essential information about the context of the sentence.

Now, we know the meaning of the given word. Let’s look at the given options:

a) sarcastic - The word ‘sarcastic’ refers to ‘. This word has a very different meaning to the given word. This is not the synonym of the given word as it would change the meaning of the sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) contemptuous - The word ‘contemptuous’ refers to ‘. This word has a very different meaning to the given word. This is not the synonym of the given word as it would change the meaning of the sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) critical - The word ‘critical’ refers to ‘. This word has a very different meaning to the given word. This is not the synonym of the given word as it would change the meaning of the sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) contemptible - The word ‘contemptible’ refers to ‘. This word has the exact same meaning as the given word. This is the synonym of the given word as it would not change the meaning of the sentence. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.

Note:
Understand the meaning of the given sentence. Go through the options one by one and guess the meaning of each one. Choose the option with the exact same meaning as the given word, i.e. a synonym.