Question

Choose the word/phrase which is opposite in meaning to the italicized word/phrase in the sentence.
People have known him for his vanity.
A) Humanity
B) Honesty
C) Courtesy
D) Modesty

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:
Let’s examine the meaning of the given options -
Option A) Humanity - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of humanity is ‘humankind or mankind or man or people’ and this is not antonym of the word vanity. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option B) honesty - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of honesty is ‘the quality of being honest or honour or uprightness’ and this is not antonym of the word vanity. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option C) Courtesy - is an incorrect answer because the meaning of courtesy is ‘the showing of politeness in one's attitude and behaviour towards others or politeness or good manners’ and this is not antonym of the word vanity. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option D) Modesty - is the correct answer because the meaning of modesty is ‘the quality or state of being unassuming in the estimation of one's abilities or moderation or fairness’ and this is the antonym of the word vanity as they have different meaning or they are opposite in meaning to each other. Thus, this is the correct answer.

Hence, the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note:Antonyms are the words that are opposite to each other i.e. antonym of vanity is modesty, and synonyms are the words that are similar in meaning. So, the synonym of vanity is self-love. Thus, Option D is the most appropriate answer as compared to the other options as they do not have the opposite meaning to the given word.