Another tactic for answering the antonym questions on the GRE test is to determine if the provided word or any of the word choices are negative or positive in connotation. For example, imagine you are given the following word for which you need to find the antonym:
RETROGRADE
If you know what retrograde means, then great, you know right away that you are looking for a word that implies going in the right direction. If you do not know the definition of retrograde, then take a close look at the prefix and roots of the word. Retrograde is split into two parts, retro and grade. Retro means backwards or away, while grade means path or progress. Even if you do not know what the root word grade means, you know that you are looking for a positive word because retro means away or without, so obviously the opposite must imply something positive.
Notice that we've been able to do significant analysis on the provided word and eventual answer without even having seen the answer choices. In fact you should get into the habit of doing similar analysis on each provided antonym word BEFORE you look at the choices.
As you can see, being able to determine the negative or positive connotation of a word is dependent on your knowledge of prefixes and root words. Several root words are given the preceding page, while here we given several prefixes, their meanings, and opposite meanings.
| Prefix |
Definition; example |
Opposite |
| co |
together; coevolve |
separated (negative) |
| de |
away, off; deviate |
towards (positive) |
| dis |
not, none; disproportional |
with, many (positive) |
| inter |
between, among; interchange |
separate, unique |
| non |
not, without; nonresident |
without, at (positive) |
| post |
after; postwar |
before |
| pre |
before; pretest |
after |
| re |
again, back; reuse |
stop, once (negative) |
| sub |
under, below; submarine |
over (positive) |
| trans |
across; transcontinental |
within, confined |