Vocabulary Made Easy series: Work on your language skills to succeed in exams

For students to be thorough with their answer writing in exams, they must ensure they work on their language skills.

Succeeding in exams demands hard work and dedication. For students to be thorough with their answer writing in exams, they must ensure they work on their language skills.

Succeeding in exams demands hard work and dedication. (PTI Photo)

Here's a way to improve your vocabulary and communication skills. Check out the words for the day and a small quiz to push yourself to improve your word power and language skills.

Apathy (Noun)

Meaning: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern

Example: He also signalled the need for politicians to combat public apathy by re-establishing trust.

Augury (Noun)

Meaning: a sign of what will happen in the future; an omen

Example: Amid the carnage and death, that unity is one augury of hope

Avarice (Noun)

Meaning: extreme greed for wealth or material gain

Example: Can you imagine all that greed and avarice coming down on that child's lips

Boor (Noun)

Meaning: a rough and bad-mannered person

Example: At last the big obnoxious boor had been dealt a stunning blow for his uncouth and belligerent manner

Complaisant (Adjective)

Meaning: willing to please others or to accept what they do or say without protest

Example: And a complaisant public is also, of course, invaluable to the transaction

Concur (Verb)

Meaning: be of the same opinion; agree / happen or occur at the same time; coincide

Example: In tests, cytogenetic determination has been found to concur with enzymatic determination

Demur (Verb)

Meaning: raise objections or show reluctance

Example: Normally she would have accepted the challenge, but she demurred

Dictum (Noun)

Meaning: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source

Example: ‘Where there is smoke there is fire’, says the old dictum.

Dogma (Noun)

Meaning: a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true

Example: These beliefs form part of their political dogma

Put your thinking cap on and try to answer the following questions to understand how much you have grasped.

1. They follow the __________ of their religion. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? (Dogma, Demur)
2. The old _____________ ‘might is right’. Which of the following words fits best in the sentence? (Dictum, Concur)
3. Can you think of some antonyms for the word Complaisant?
4. Can you think of some synonyms for the word Avarice?

Watch out for this space for your weekly update on improving word power.

(Definitions and examples are from Oxford Languages)