Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the highlighted word in the given…

Concept — An antonym reverses a word’s meaning along the SAME dimension of meaning. Verbs that report a speaker’s evaluative stance towards someone’s conduct sit on a dimension running from expressing disapproval (rebuke, censure) at one end to expressing approval (praise, backing) at the other. The opposite of a verb of rebuke is therefore a verb of approval — not a harsher or milder rebuke, and not a verb drawn from some other dimension such as motivation.

Application — Here the Professor is reacting to plagiarism, an offence. To admonish is to warn or rebuke someone firmly for a fault, so the stance expressed is disapproval. Reversing that stance gives open approval of what the students did, and to endorse is to declare approval of or support for something. Substituting it yields “The Professor endorsed the students for plagiarising…”, i.e. he backed what they did — the exact reverse reaction.

Contrast —

• Slammed: attacks the conduct even more harshly than admonished, so it sits at the same disapproval end of the dimension.

• Reprimanded: a formal, official rebuke — the closest synonym of admonished rather than its opposite.

• Inspired: names a motivating influence on someone’s ambition or imagination, a different dimension from approving or disapproving of an act.

• Endorsed: declares approval and support, which is the reverse of the disapproval carried by admonished.

Answer — The antonym of admonished is endorsed.