Choose the option most opposite in meaning to a target word.
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Practise it now
Full is to empty as happy is to…?
This exercise practises select opposite meaning 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.
Reversing the idea, not the word
Which word means the opposite of "win"?
Work one headword through and see why the word that goes WITH it is the trap.
lose
triumph
knit
sketch
Answer: lose
How you get there
"lose" reverses "win": the two cannot both be true of the same thing at the same time, which is the test for an opposite. "triumph" is the trap on this board, because it means the SAME as "win" rather than the reverse of it, and a word that goes WITH the headword is the commonest wrong answer here. Name the idea the headword sits on first, then reverse that idea rather than reaching for whichever option feels most unlike the word.
Why the other answers tempt
A word that goes with the headword is not its opposite: "rich" sits beside "wealthy" rather than reversing it.
If they are stuck, say this
Say what idea the headword is about, such as size or speed or money, then look for the option that turns that same idea the other way round.
This engine’s own main skill is Word Analogies. It practises select opposite meaning 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 opposite meaning 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: choose the option most opposite in meaning to a target word, and it stops where excludes merely unrelated options.
Questions parents ask about select opposite meaning
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.
Choose the option most opposite in meaning to a target word. It is one of 26 named verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the vocabulary strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
A word that goes with the headword is not its opposite: "rich" sits beside "wealthy" rather than reversing 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 what idea the headword is about, such as size or speed or money, then look for the option that turns that same idea the other way round.
The skill map draws the line here: Excludes merely unrelated options. A question past that line is testing a different named verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The vocabulary strand holds 2 skills that are tested together, and the page next to select opposite meaning is select closest meaning. 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 opposite meaning, 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.
Verbal reasoning is a set of question types, not a subject to revise
A free diagnostic works out which of the codes, analogies, word puzzles and logic types are already secure, and which are not.
