Free One Word Substitution MCQs with Answers

173 One Word Substitution MCQs from English, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

One-word substitution replaces a descriptive phrase with a single precise word, such as a person who cannot read or a place where aircraft are kept. Questions test vocabulary for people, actions, qualities, places and systems, along with distinctions between near-synonyms and correct spelling.

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173 questions · page 6 of 9

Moderate
  • A. esplande
  • B. espadrille
  • C. estrangement
  • D. espionage

Explanation: Espionage is the practice of secretly obtaining information through spies, especially during war.

Correct answer: espionage
Hard
  • A. interruption
  • B. interrogation
  • C. internment
  • D. intermittent

Explanation: Internment means the detention and confinement of a person, especially during wartime or for political reasons.

Correct answer: internment
Fairly easy
  • A. philanderer
  • B. volunteer
  • C. mercenary
  • D. missionary

Explanation: A volunteer offers service willingly without expecting payment. A mercenary also offers service for money, while a missionary is…

Correct answer: volunteer
Fairly easy
  • A. casino
  • B. beach
  • C. resort
  • D. museum

Explanation: A resort is a place visited by many people for holidays or recreation. A beach may be part of a resort, but it is not necessarily a…

Correct answer: resort
Hard
  • A. relinquish
  • B. renounce
  • C. abdicate
  • D. resign

Explanation: To abdicate is to give up the throne or sovereign power, as a monarch may do.

Correct answer: abdicate
Hard
  • A. profanity
  • B. sedition
  • C. sacrilege
  • D. slander

Explanation: Sacrilege is the violation or profanation of something regarded as holy or sacred.

Correct answer: sacrilege
Hard
  • A. concurrent
  • B. contemporary
  • C. coincident
  • D. concomitant

Explanation: Contemporary means existing or living at the same time as another person or event.

Correct answer: contemporary
Moderate
  • A. obstetrics
  • B. pediatrics
  • C. calisthenics
  • D. geriatrics

Explanation: Geriatrics is the branch of medicine concerned with the health and care of older people.

Correct answer: geriatrics
Fairly easy
  • A. snobbery
  • B. courtship
  • C. estrangement
  • D. polyphony

Explanation: Courtship is the period in which two people develop a romantic relationship before marriage.

Correct answer: courtship
Easy
  • A. irrelevant
  • B. infallible
  • C. indelible
  • D. inaudible

Explanation: Infallible means incapable of failing or making a mistake. Indelible means impossible to erase, and inaudible means impossible to hear.

Correct answer: infallible
Hard
  • A. harangue
  • B. hyperbole
  • C. idiosyncrasy
  • D. elegy

Explanation: An idiosyncrasy is a distinctive, unusual, or eccentric personal trait.

Correct answer: idiosyncrasy
Very hard
  • A. nomadic
  • B. elite
  • C. zealot
  • D. swashbuckler

Explanation: A zealot is a person fanatically devoted to a belief and therefore often dogmatic in expressing it.

Correct answer: zealot
Fairly easy
  • A. fleet
  • B. hamlet
  • C. monument
  • D. constellation

Explanation: A hamlet is a small settlement or cluster of houses, usually smaller than a village.

Correct answer: hamlet
Very hard
  • A. punctilious
  • B. obtuse
  • C. absurd
  • D. abstruse

Explanation: Abstruse means difficult to understand because it is complex or obscure.

Correct answer: abstruse
Moderate
  • A. agnostic
  • B. Iconoc
  • C. belligerent
  • D. anarchist

Explanation: An anarchist advocates the absence of a governing authority and rejects the idea of imposed government.

Correct answer: anarchist
Hard
  • A. eligible
  • B. legitimate
  • C. legalised
  • D. liable

Explanation: Liable means legally responsible or legally answerable, often for a debt, offence, or consequence.

Correct answer: liable
Moderate
  • A. soliloquy
  • B. indispensable
  • C. sinecure
  • D. indelible

Explanation: Indispensable describes something absolutely necessary, so it is bound to be done or required.

Correct answer: indispensable
Moderate
  • A. handwritten
  • B. manuscript
  • C. proof
  • D. amnesty

Explanation: A manuscript is a piece of writing prepared by hand, although the word can also refer to an author's original text before publication.

Correct answer: manuscript
Moderate
  • A. Verbose
  • B. Ambivalent
  • C. Epigraph
  • D. Ambiguous

Explanation: An ambiguous statement can be understood in two or more ways, including through a double meaning.

Correct answer: Ambiguous
Moderate
  • A. sacrilege
  • B. rent
  • C. bunting
  • D. remuneration

Explanation: Remuneration is payment or reward for work or services. Rent is paid for the use of property, while sacrilege means misuse of something…

Correct answer: remuneration