Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the given…
2025
Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the given sentence.
As a guest at the dinner party, he was polite and deferred to the host for guidance on the
events.
- A.
Directed
- B.
Opposed
- C.
Yielded
- D.
Ignored
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
An antonym is a word whose meaning is the direct opposite of another word's meaning; unlike synonyms (which restate a similar sense) or loosely related terms (which share only surface context), a true antonym reverses the core action or state the original word expresses.
In the given sentence, ‘deferred’ describes submitting to, or complying with, the host's guidance — i.e., accepting another person's authority rather than acting against it. The word that most directly reverses this sense — active resistance to that authority — is ‘Opposed’.
‘Directed’ places the subject in the role of giving guidance rather than receiving or resisting it, so it does not reverse the meaning of submitting to someone else.
‘Yielded’ restates the same idea of submitting or giving way, making it a near-synonym of ‘deferred’ rather than its opposite.
‘Ignored’ denotes passive inattention rather than active resistance, so it is a weaker, different concept than the direct reversal an antonym requires.
Standard dictionaries (e.g., Merriam-Webster, Cambridge) define ‘defer (to)’ as submitting to another's wishes, opinion, or judgment; the standard antonym pairing for this sense is ‘oppose’, confirming ‘Opposed’ as the correct choice.