The antonym portion of the GRE Verbal may be the most misleading portion of the test. After getting acquainted with the GRE, you may realize that “finding the antonym,” a seemingly simple task, turns out to be not so easy. And, perhaps unexpectedly, the GRE has a lot more in its arsenal than obscure vocabulary.

While expanding your vocabulary is necessary for the antonyms, it’s not quite sufficient to beat the test-makers at their own game. Here are a few strategies to level the playing field:

1. Read all answer choices: Because the time limit on the GRE is pretty intimidating, many test takers rush though the antonyms. After all, all you need to do is read a single word and find its opposite, right? Well, yes and no. While this is, in fact, all you need to do, remember that the GRE is a reasoning test. More than one answer will appear sufficient, so if you jump at the first answer that satisfies your vague requirements for antonymness, you will likely make many errors. Let’s check out an example:

EQUANIMITY :

petulance

aplomb

propagate

agitation

misaligned

Suppose, upon viewing the word “equanimity,” you think “equal,” and go for the first word that satisfies an antonym of equal, congruent, and balanced. Surely, “misaligned,” though not an exact antonym, fits the bill, so you choose it. Unfortunately for you, hasty test-taker, you’re wrong. Though equanimity does retain the sense of “equa,” meaning equal or even, the word more accurately means “composure, steadiness under stress” (aplomb is a close synonym). If equanimity means steadiness under stress, then its antonym might suggest a more typical reaction to stress: agitation is our correct answer.

2. Determine Part of Speech: When we hear a word out of context, we often think of only one of its definitions and/or one of its parts of speech. For example, when I say FLAG, I expect that you imagine a colorful rectangle of linen blowing in the wind. But, what if we have this question:

FLAG:

wane

burgeon

intensify

return

weaken

If you were presented with these answer choices, I’d hope that you changed your mental image of flag. How do we know “flag” doesn’t mean an American flag or a white flag? All of the choices are verbs, not concrete nouns. So, we abandon our mental image and remember that, as a verb, flag can mean “to weaken, to become less intense.” Now, everything makes sense, so we choose “intensify.”

3. Remember Secondary Meanings: This tip is very similar to the last one. Not only should you pay attention to part of speech, but don’t forget about the lesser known meanings of familiar words. Take this example:

RIGHT:

lie

serve

keel

acquiesce

adumbrate

While the simple word “right” may seem like a beacon of clarity in a sea of difficult words, think again. We know, from strategy 2, that we aren’t speaking of the noun ‘right,’ like ‘right versus wrong.’ And based on the choices, we aren’t even speaking of the familiar verb “right,” as in “to right a wrong.” At this point, if you can think of a lesser known definition of “right” as a verb, go for it. It just so happens that “right” can mean “regain an upright position,” as in the phrase “he righted himself.” “Keel,” our correct answer, happens to mean “to capsize or overturn” when used as a verb.

4. Be Aware of Distracters: Do you think that, when making the antonym questions, test-writers arbitrarily choose wrong answer choices? Unfortunately for us, they don’t. We can only hope they’d be so lazy. When examining answer choices, certain answers are likely to grab your attention. You should be wary of such choices. Here’s an example:

UNDERMINE:

overturn

assuage

support

denounce

execrate

The sight of “under” in the word undermine may lead the hasty test-taker to the answer choice “overturn.” Under versus over is an attractive antonym, especially if you are running out of time and losing your composure. But, we know that undermine means to weaken or counteract, like “undermine the argument.” So, “support” is the best answer.

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