Identify the antonym of the underlined word in the sentence given below. The…

Concept: An antonym is a word that takes the opposite value on the SAME semantic property as the target word. Two adjectives are opposites only when they measure one and the same quality — moisture, temperature, texture, brightness, speed — and sit at its two ends. So an antonym question is solved in two moves: first name the property the target word measures, then find the word that measures that same property in the reverse direction. A word attached to a different property can never be the antonym, however contrasting it may feel.

Application: In the sentence given, the target word arid describes the water content of the climate: an arid region receives very little rainfall, so its air and soil hold almost no moisture — which is precisely why farming there is hard. The property under test is therefore moisture. Reversing that property gives a climate whose air carries a large amount of water vapour, and the English adjective for that condition is humid.

Cross-check: test each offered word against that same moisture property.

• rough belongs to the texture scale (uneven versus smooth), so it cannot reverse a moisture word.

• shiny belongs to the light-reflection scale (gleaming versus dull), which says nothing about water content.

• windy belongs to the air-movement scale (gusty versus still); moving air is not the same property as the water held in it, so a windy place may be dry or damp.

• humid belongs to the moisture scale itself and sits at its high end, opposite the dry end occupied by arid.

Result: the antonym of arid is humid.