The makers of the GRE claim that their analogy questions are exact and precise, so if you know a discerning-enough relationship between the provided words, then you should be able to spot the answer quite easily. However, it's not always easy to come up with a good enough relationship. Regardless, there are a few relationship types that are seen often on the GRE. Although you shouldn't memorize this list, you should notice that it's not that extensive and that most of the relationships are quite simple.
| Analogy Type |
Example |
| Definition |
home:dwelling |
| Type of |
grasshopper:insect |
| Antonym |
love:abhor |
| Synonym |
thrifty:economical |
| Tool and Function |
axe:chop |
| Tool and Object |
saw:wood |
| Subset, Part Of |
ant:colony |
| Cause and Effect |
virus:disease |
| Worker and Workplace |
teacher:classroom |
| Degree | drizzle:downpour |
Notice that many of the above relationships can be interchanged. For example, a home is by definition a dwelling, but a home is also a type of dwelling. You'll need to be familiar with such relationships so that you can choose the best one. As has been mentioned, you may very well find a good relationship between the two given words, but upon inspection of the answer choices, you'll see that you need to refine you relationship, and so you'll have to make it more specific or else select a relationship that is slightly different but still works.