SSC CGL One Word Substitution Questions 2026 (Previous Year Words, ‑cide, ‑phobia, ‑logy & ‑cracy) — Free Chapter Wise Practice Test

One Word Substitution Tests — Pick a Level and Start

Tap a level to see every test in it. Level 1 is set at real SSC CGL difficulty — start there. Level 2 is pitched above the exam, with rarer words and wrong options taken from the same word family, so you have to know the exact meaning, not just the general idea.

Every one word substitution question asks one thing: which single word means exactly what this group of words says? Sometimes the group of words is given on its own (“A person who cannot read or write”); sometimes it sits underlined inside a sentence, and the word you choose has to replace it and keep the sentence correct.

Marks are lost in three places. The first is the look-alike — Hangar and Hanger, Potable and Portable, Emigrant and Immigrant. The second is the same family — four -cides or four -phobias where only the root tells them apart. The third is the near meaning — Atheist when the definition says “nothing can be known” (Agnostic), or Gourmet when it says “eats far too much” (Gourmand). Read every word of the definition before you choose.

How Many One Word Substitution Questions Are Asked in SSC CGL?

One word substitution is a fixed part of the English section — usually one or two questions in every SSC CGL Tier I shift, two or three in CHSL, and more in the Tier II English paper. SSC repeats its words more here than in any other English chapter, so a well-practised list turns directly into marks. The kinds of word that come up are listed below, most common first.

The same words also come back as synonyms and in cloze tests — Insolvent, Posthumous and Ostracise are favourites.

What You Will Practice in the One Word Substitution Chapter

People and places

• People by belief and behaviour: Atheist, Agnostic, Altruist, Misanthrope, Hypocrite, Stoic, Recluse, Sycophant
• Professions and specialists: Cartographer, Lexicographer, Ophthalmologist, Orthodontist, Taxidermist, Curator
• Places and buildings: Hangar, Mint, Granary, Mortuary, Observatory, Orphanage, Sanatorium, Mausoleum
• Groups and collections: Shoal, Swarm, Horde, Anthology, Glossary, Bouquet

Word families

• Study of (-logy): Ornithology, Entomology, Seismology, Etymology, Speleology
• Government (-cracy, -archy): Bureaucracy, Plutocracy, Theocracy, Oligarchy, Anarchy
• Killing (-cide): Genocide, Infanticide, Fratricide, Regicide, Patricide
• Fears and manias: Claustrophobia, Acrophobia, Xenophobia, Kleptomania, Pyromania
• Adjectives: Illegible, Inaudible, Infallible, Inevitable, Irrevocable, Potable, Palatable

Level 2 extras

• Rarer -cides and -cracies: Uxoricide, Mariticide, Sororicide, Tyrannicide, Kakistocracy, Kleptocracy, Gerontocracy
• Literary and character words: Raconteur, Polymath, Dilettante, Termagant, Sesquipedalian, Quixotic, Truculent

The word-building table

Knowing the root does not replace knowing the word — in Level 2 every option shares the suffix, and only the first part tells them apart.

The three mistakes that cost the most marks

• Picking the look-alike. A hangar shelters aircraft; a hanger holds clothes. Potable water is safe to drink; a portable radio can be carried.
• Picking the opposite. The option list almost always holds the reverse of the answer — Emigrant for Immigrant, Novice for Veteran, Optimist for Pessimist.
• Stopping at half the definition. “A person who does not believe in God” is an Atheist; “a person who believes nothing can be known about God” is an Agnostic. The last few words decide it.

Solved Examples — SSC CGL One Word Substitution

How the One Word Substitution Tests Work

• 25 questions per test, with a full question palette — answered, skipped, marked for review, not visited.
• Both SSC formats in every test — one word for a given group of words, and one word for the underlined group of words in a sentence.
• 40% previous year words — ten of the 25 words in every test were asked in SSC CGL or CHSL papers; the rest are fresh words at the same level, and no word repeats anywhere in the chapter.
• Optional 15-minute timer — with the clock to build exam speed, without it while you are still learning the words.
• Marking: +2 correct, −0.5 wrong, 0 unattempted — the same scheme as the real paper.
• Step-by-step solutions and a memory trick open after you submit, question by question — what the group of words means, the root or suffix that builds the answer, why each wrong option fails, and the trap students fall into.
• In English, as in the exam — English Language questions are set in English in SSC CGL and CHSL.
• Free with a TrickySSC account — sign in once with Google or your mobile number, and every test is open to you.

How to Prepare One Word Substitution for SSC CGL

1. Start with the previous year words. SSC repeats them more than anything else in English — Level 1 here is built on them.
2. Learn in families, not alphabetically. All the -cides together, all the -cracies together, all the -phobias together; the root then tells them apart.
3. Learn the opposite with the word. Optimist with Pessimist, Emigrant with Immigrant, Veteran with Novice — the opposite is almost always one of the options.
4. Read the whole definition. The last few words usually decide between two close options — “without causing loss of consciousness”, “in a skilful and amusing way”.
5. For sentence questions, check the grammar too. An adjective replaces an adjective phrase and a noun replaces a noun phrase — read the sentence again with your word in it.
6. Revise for ten minutes a day. Do Level 1 untimed first, then with the 15-minute clock; move to Level 2 once Level 1 is steady, and then check yourself on a previous year paper.

Related SSC CGL English Chapters

One word substitution builds the same vocabulary that synonyms, antonyms and cloze tests check, and the same words turn up in Spot the Error and Sentence Improvement. Practising them together makes each one faster.

All SSC CGL Chapter Wise Tests

Every chapter below has its own free Level 1 and Level 2 tests with full solutions.

SSC CGL One Word Substitution — Frequently Asked Questions

More Free SSC CGL Practice