Verbal Reasoning Opposite Meaning

An Opposite Meaning question gives you two groups of three words. You find the two words, one from each group, that are most opposite in meaning.

This is Closest Meaning with one word changed. The sweep is the same. You hunt the opposite instead of the twin, and you prove it a different way.

The method

Five beats: underline it, say it, sweep all nine, name the line or the flip side, prove it.

1. Underline the word opposite in the question. Papers put these two types side by side, and the eye reads the shape it saw last. One second, and it stops the most expensive mistake there is.
2. Cover group 2 with your thumb. Take the first word of group 1 and say what it means. "Smile is what your face does when you are happy."
3. Uncover group 2 and sweep all nine. Test your word against all three, then the second word of group 1 against all three, then the third. Ask "are these two opposite?" every time. Never ask "do these two go together?" Nine checks, in a fixed order. Never scan the six words hoping a pair jumps out.
4. Name the line your pair sits on, or find the flip side. Fast to slow is speed. Wide to narrow is width. Both words must sit on one line, at opposite ends. If there is no line, look for a flip-side opposite instead. See the three kinds below.
5. Prove it. Swapping one word for the other must reverse the meaning, not just change the subject.

About 30 to 35 seconds each.

You will also meet a single-word form: one word, then four options, like most opposite to SUMMIT. Same beats, with one group instead of two, so three checks and not nine.

The three kinds of opposite

Children hunt only the first kind and get stuck. About one hard pair in three is not the first kind, so learn all three.

• Sliding opposites. There is a middle, and things can be a bit of each. Bright and dim. Wide and narrow. Scarce and plentiful. These have a line you can name.
• Either-or opposites. No middle at all. One of the two must be true. Awake and asleep. Innocent and guilty. See-through and solid.
• Flip-side opposites. The same thing seen from the other end, or the action undone. Buy and sell. Borrow and lend. Build and destroy. Remember and forget.

If you cannot name a line, ask whether it is a flip side. There is no "less ancestor", and descendant is still the opposite.

Watch for these traps

• The twin. Much the most common, and planted on purpose. The question hides a word that means nearly the same as one of yours, one in each group. Trade and swap. Drowsy and asleep. A near-match is the loudest link on a page, and a rushing eye grabs it. In the single-word form the twin is usually the first option.
• Different is not opposite. Sigh is not the opposite of smile. Music is not the opposite of harmony. They are on the same topic, which feels like reasoning and is not.
• A pair inside one group. Giggle and laugh together. Mouldy and rotten together. You must take one word from each group, so these can never be the answer. Pure time-wasting.
• Giving up because there is no middle. The harder pairs lean on either-or and flip-side opposites, which have no middle and no line. That is not a reason to reject them.
• Nearly right. Sturdy sits beside rigid, but rigid means stiff and sturdy means strong. Ridge sits beside summit. Nearly right is wrong.

If you do not know one of the words, work down this ladder rather than freezing:

1. Decide what kind of word it is. Its opposite is the same kind.
2. Decide whether it feels good or bad. Then hunt the option with the opposite feel.
3. Break the word up. Un-, in-, im-, dis- and mis- usually mean "not something". That gives you the meaning to hunt for, not the answer itself. The exam rarely offers unhappy when it can offer cheerful.
4. Cross out the twin, and any two words that mean the same as each other. There is nearly always one.
5. Choose from what is left. Never leave it blank.

Try these yourself

Now have a go yourself — tap the two words that are opposite.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• VR: Closest Meaning — the same sweep, hunting twins instead of opposites
• VR: Odd One Out — another two-group hunt, this time for the pair that does not belong

All example questions come from the Brainblox question bank — practise this question type inside 15 arcade games, timed mock exams and focused practice. Brainblox is an independent app: not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by any exam board, school or assessment publisher, and it contains no past papers.