Approximately eight or nine antonym questions will appear on the Verbal part of the GRE, and they are the most straight-forward questions that you will see on the test; however, that does not mean that the antonym questions are easy. Also, out of all of the sections on the GRE, the antonym section is the hardest to study for and the hardest to improve upon because your success on the antonym questions is directly dependent on your depth and breadth of your vocabulary, which takes months to improve.
Quite simply, the instructions for the antonym section state:
| Each question consists of a word or phrase printed in capital letters, followed by five lettered words or phrases. Choose the lettered word or phrase that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word or phrase in capital letters. |
Or, more simply, you just have to select the best antonym (opposite in meaning) from the 5 choices. Here is an example antonym question:
The answer is "hinder", because to expedite means to help along or to speed up, and hinder means the exact opposite of that. To help you prepare for the antonym questions on the GRE, the following tactics are discussed in this section:
- Making Your Own Antonym
- Using Root Words
- Considering Positive and Negative Meanings
- Educated Elimination
- Considering Parts of Speech
- Improving Your Vocabulary