Hindi Vocabulary — Paryayvachi, Vilom, Anekarthi and the Shrutisam Pairs

Four vocabulary questions sit in every Hindi language paper, and all four are the same question in different clothes: do you know what this word means, precisely? पर्यायवाची asks for another word with the same meaning. विलोम asks for its opposite. अनेकार्थी asks how many meanings one word carries. श्रुतिसम भिन्नार्थक asks you to separate two words that sound almost identical and mean nothing alike.

Together they carry more marks than any single grammar rule, and unlike sandhi or samas there is no formula to derive the answer. This is recall — and recall only cooperates when you learn in sets. Nobody remembers three hundred loose synonyms. Everybody remembers the nine names of the sun the moment they notice that all nine are describing light. Learn the set, and the set does the remembering for you.

1. Which word does NOT belong to the पर्यायवाची set of 'कमल'?

2. What does the word 'अनिल' mean?

3. The विलोम (antonym) of 'कृतज्ञ' is:

4. Which of the following is NOT a meaning of the अनेकार्थी word 'हरि'?

5. The word 'शुल्क' means:

6. Which of these is a पर्यायवाची of 'पृथ्वी'?

7. Which of the following pairs is NOT a विलोम (antonym) pair?

8. Which word means 'garment or cloth'?