Select a word with the opposite meaning in the stated context.
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Practise it now
Full is to empty as happy is to…?
This exercise practises select an antonym alongside its own main skill, Word Analogies.
It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Words that reverse a meaning
Say each word next to its heading and listen for the reversal.
Words to sort: condemn, shrink, contract, insult, mock, reduce.
Groups to sort them into: Opposite of EXPAND; Opposite of PRAISE.
Answer: Opposite of EXPAND: shrink, contract, reduce. Opposite of PRAISE: condemn, insult, mock.
How you get there
An antonym reverses its heading word rather than simply differing from it: "reduce" belongs under "Opposite of EXPAND" and "mock" under "Opposite of PRAISE", which means every item here has exactly one correct group.
Why the other answers tempt
A word that is merely different is not an opposite: it has to reverse the heading, not just avoid it.
If they are stuck, say this
Say the heading word and the item one after the other - true opposites cannot both be true of the same thing at once.
This engine’s own main skill is Word Analogies. It practises select an antonym alongside it, and covers most of it rather than all.
Full is the opposite of empty, so happy is the opposite of sad. In an analogy the two pairs must be joined by exactly the same relationship: find the link in the first pair, then carry that link across.
What to say if they get stuck
Say the first pair out loud: "Full is the opposite of empty."
The same bridge has to carry "happy". These are opposites.
How select an antonym differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: select a word with the opposite meaning in the stated context, and it stops where excludes merely different words.
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Select a word with the opposite meaning in the stated context. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the vocabulary strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
A word that is merely different is not an opposite: it has to reverse the heading, not just avoid it. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Say the heading word and the item one after the other - true opposites cannot both be true of the same thing at once.
The skill map draws the line here: Excludes merely different words. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The vocabulary strand holds 4 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to select an antonym are select a synonym, classify a word relationship and resolve a homophone. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Word Bridge, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to select an antonym, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems
A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.
